Midnight Angels fall
by Icesythe
Summary: How far will one go seeking redemption? Enter Shonobu Maehara age 19. She has taken it on herself to cross between parell worlds and seal an acient evil, to save this world from the fate of her own, but can she protect those she cares about from herself?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Silent Homecoming**

A beautiful dark headed girl trudged through the normally happy and sunny streets of Hinata hot springs, Japan. Though the day was just like any of those sunny and cheerful days in this beautiful coastal city, this traveler walked as if she were covered in the dark cloud of failure and pain. The angst was almost dripping from her skin with each and every agonizing step she took.

The warm late-summer's wind caught her long bluish-black hair and tossed it spiritedly in its gentle breeze.

'Oh, she had longed for this place,' the weary traveler thought as she stumbled up and down the many coastal streets and boardwalks, wandering aimlessly for hours on end. It was a sight for sore eyes, yet strangely it bought her no comfort at all.

When she finally collapsed into a chair just outside of a restaurant, she was panting to catch her breath as if she had just ran a marathon.

"God it seems like its been forever since I've been here," she told herself, taking in a couple of deep breaths of salty air. She let her backpack slump from her shoulder onto the cobblestone paving in front of the restaurant. She sat down at a table and stared at the endless expanses of blue sea and green mountains above it.

It seemed like it had been years since she was here, yet in reality she was here just hours before, except then there was no clear blue skies, no inviting sea, and the mountains above burned black and crimson with malicious intent, threatening to descend upon the town, shoveling it into the tumultuous seas below.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZz

_Motoko lay prone, bleeding, struggling to gain her footing, her crimson life blood spilling out into the tiny crevices between the cobblestone paving, slowly making its way to the cracks in the boardwalks and to an already crimson sea._

_"You and Kanako go, I'll hold them!" Motoko yelled, trying to use the scabbard of her sword as a crutch to lift herself back to her feet, yet the stones were so covered in her lifeblood it kept slipping out from under her, sending her once again down into a pool of her own blood._

_Breaking free from Kanako's grasp, Shinobu turned, running back to her battered friend, quickly dropped to her knees and, throwing a blood-soaked arm around her neck, she lifted the kendo instructor to her feet. _

_"I can't let you die now!" Shinobu cried, hobbling as fast as she could, carrying her._

_"Shinobu, you fool!" Motoko cried out, kicking her in the stomach and knocking her out from underneath her arm._

_Without the support of her friend, Motoko stumbled and fell to one knee, driving her sword into the pavement and leaning on it to stay upright._

_"Motoko . . . but if I leave you, you're going to die, and I can't do it all by myself!" Tears filled Shinobu's light blue eyes in almost hysterical crying as she tried frantically to scramble to her feet, falling to her knees several times in the process._

_"What must I do to convince you, girl!" Motoko roared, standing to her feet. The air about them suddenly became heavy and Motoko's body whipped around to look at Shinobu, her eyes burning almost blood red with fire._

_"Your journey is yours to make and yours alone, Shinobu, you cannot save this world, and you cannot save me!" Motoko roared with the authority of not only herself, but also her ancestors._

_"But Motoko..."_

_"NO BUTS!" Motoko bellowed, smacking Shinobu upside the face with the hilt of her blade._

_The smaller girl spun around, her senses jarred, confused and all but broken when she felt a sharp stinging pain on the back of her neck at the base of the hairline. The feeling of blood dripping down the back of her neck brought the young woman back to her senses and she turned to Motoko._

_"Now run and don't look back. If not, I'll cut you down myself." The ki burned even more wildly in her eyes as she sank to one knee, cleaving many strange creatures in front of her in half._

_For an instant Shinobu glanced at her longtime friend and mentor, then back at the route of escape where Kanako was waiting for her. Motoko's resolve and brutality had forced her to see what she had to do._

_"Godspeed Motoko Aoyama, 13 generation daughter of Jubie," Shinobu whispered into the breeze before running off after Kanako for all she was worth. The air behind her filled with the infernal screams of many an oni as Motoko held off the wave of them coming from the mountains above._

_It was all right there, happening before her very eyes, in this very spot it happened: the murderous screams and the otherworldly howls bellowing through the mountains above. It was all there, yet at the same time it wasn't._

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZz

"Would you like some tea miss?" The question fell on numbed ears, almost drowned out by the pondering of a troubled mind. They were barely enough to wake the young woman form her trance.

"Yes," the traveler answered dully as she shifted her hollow gaze up the mountain and to a certain inn that had, over the years, become an all-girls dormitory.

It was there. Of course it was there, just like it was peaceful and majestic in appearance, inviting, almost like home. "Hell, it was home once, and probably will be again soon." She smiled to herself as she thanked the old woman running the tea shop and began to sip her hot beverage.

'Sight just the thing I needed,' she thought, letting out a long, drawn-out sigh. 'That travel between universes was rougher than I thought it was going to be.'

Abruptly she gulped down the rest of her tea, shouldered her faded olive-drab military backpack, and, tipping the old woman at the teashop, began to meander through random alleyways until she appeared at the foot of a very tall set of stairs, seemingly cut from the living rock of the mountain itself.

"Well, time to go home," she told herself, still reluctant to ascend. She stood there for a few moments, just taking it all in when someone bumped into her.

Quickly, almost instinctively, she spun around, grabbing the person by the arm and throwing a low cross kick to the man's lower legs, knocking them out from underneath him. There was a loud thump as he landed face-first in the dirt and she began to drag him backwards. She might well have slammed him face-first into the nearest tree and proceeded to snap his neck had it not been for the sight of a familiar face and glasses, mostly the glasses.

Quickly she let go of the arm and fell to her knees, picking the young man's face up out of the dirt.

"Keitaro?" she whimpered. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry," she said, on the verge of crying as she began to dust him off.

"Huh?" the young man said, looking up and straightening his glasses.

"I didn't mean it Keitaro. Honest," she whimpered, afraid to look the man in his eyes.

"Oh it's no problem," he said, standing up and dusting himself off. "I get that more than you might expect around here. Hey, who might you be?" Keitaro asked, looking at the girl quizzically and helping her to her feet.

She was about to answer when Keitaro caught a glimpse of her backpack, which had the characters for Shin scrawled on it in black marker.

"Hey, I know you!" he exclaimed excitedly, pointing at her.

'Damn, my cover is blown already,' the girl thought. 'This is going to be bad.'

However, much to her surprise, Keitaro answered, "You must be a relative of Shinobu's, though that backpack is a little beat-up looking. Hard to believe that a girl like Shinobu would own something like that, though," he said with a nervous laugh, scratching the back of his head with one hand and letting the other hang loosely by his side.

"Oh, the Shinobu that lives there," she said, shocked back to reality at Keitaro, with his ever-loving-head-in-the-clouds attitude and that classic pose she remembered him doing countless times.

"No. No, I don't know any Shinobu's that live there. Um . . . Well, actually, that is, um . . . Well, it's my name too," she said shyly.

"Damn," Shinobu cursed herself for not planning a better cover story before she approached the Hinata Inn. If they found out who she really was, they would probably throw her out, or worse, call the insane asylum so they could send the men in little white suits after her, not to mention if that happened, then what could she do to protect them all of them, just like she had sworn to Motoko and Kanako just hours before.

This whole travel thing was certainly taking its toll on her mind, but she had made a promise to protect the ones she loved and cared about, and nothing, not even an a trans-universe hangover was going to stop her.

Quickly clearing her head of all fear and doubt as best she could, she cleared her throat and spoke.

"Mirumoto Shinobu," she said bowing in a traditional sense. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Urashima Keitaro."

"Damn it, I did it again," Shinobu growled at herself for letting that one slip and waited for the crazy response anxiously.

"Its nice to meet you as well, Muramoto Shinobu, but how did you know my name?" he asked.

"Your reputation proceeds you Mr. Urashima," she said, thinking quickly. "A three year ronin at Tokyo U, only to finish up the last and most difficult section of the entrance exam in 5 minutes earlier this year, you're quite a legend among the Tokyo U hopefuls," she said with a faked smile.

"Am I now?" He paused. "Well, that's nice to hear. Guess all of that hard work with Naru paid off after all," he said with a smile.

'Keitaro always has heart-warming smiles,' Shinobu thought to herself as she began to feel at ease for the first time in what seemed like years.

She was reluctant to interrupt the peace of the moment, but for all of their sakes she pressed on through the sweet silence and asked, "Yeah well, I've heard of other students that studied here that got into Tokyo U, and I thought that maybe a second year ronin like myself could maybe possibly get in too if I lived and studied in a place like this."

"Well I don't know if I would believe those urban legends about this place, and I can't guarantee if you live and study here that you'll get into Tokyo U, but I can guarantee that you'll meet some friendly people and have a great time here," he said with utmost confidence.

"I'm sure I will," she replied, this time with a glint of a genuine smile of hope and ease.

"Keitaro could always chase away my demons," she said to herself as they both ascended the stairs towards the Hinata Inn. She playfully fought the desire to rest her head on his shoulder as they climbed the great stairs.

'It would be so fun,' she thought. She had spent almost 7 years in the shadow of Naru Narusegawa, in her efforts to get her Sempai's attention, and, more importantly, affection. Of course, she was so young at the time, only 12 when they first met, and even though she soon turned 13, the seven year gap in their age could not be overcome.

So she watched and waited; that was all she could do up until that fateful day after Keitaro's marriage to her and the utter chaos that followed. It broke her already-fragile heart at just how little she could do, but she was no longer in that world and the 7 year age gap no longer existed.

"It was but a meager year and a half now," she told herself, and even though she couldn't accompany her Sempai in his first year at Tokyo U, she had already passed the entrance exam once. This time, it would be a snap.

"No, no, you mustn't daydream so much Shinobu, especially about such things. You came here to save this world, not to wreck it," she said to herself as she shifted her breathing to some techniques Motoko had thought her to calm herself and control her emotions.

It seemed like they were caught in a short eternity as they climbed the great staircase, seemingly just caught in limbo between the worlds. It was a nice feeling, but like everything in life that felt nice warm and fuzzy, it was gone almost before it even started.

"Well, looks like no one's home around here. I can give you a quick tour if you like," said the manager as he set his bag down.

"No, it's all right," she replied, stopping him. "I've had my heart set on this place for a while now and there's no need to sell me on anything."

"Well, that being said, do you have a preference in rooms?"

"Not that I can think of," she replied.

"Well, the rooms I have open at the moment are 202, it would the quite one. Well, the more quiet of the two that is. Your neighbors would be Shinobu Marahara, and Motoko Aoyama would be in the room over that one, she's usually rather quiet."

"Now the other room is on the third floor, 305, but if you take that one I should warn you about the noisy downstairs neighbor..."

"I'll take the one on the third floor," she said, cutting him off in disinterest.

Are you sure?" Keitaro asked, trying to warn the young woman about what she was getting herself into.

"Yes, I'm sure I like being up in higher places," the blue-haired girl replied.

"Well then, shall I help you with your things?" he asked her as they walked up the stairs.

"No, I'll be fine," she said re-shouldering her worn-out pack with a quick bounce, stepping nimbly up the stairs.

"Are you sure you don't need anything at all?" Keitaro asked as she opened the twin rice paper doors and entered the room.

"No I'll be fine," she said again, throwing her pack aside, yawning and stretching her arms out.

"Well ok, if you're sure you don't need anything," he said, reluctant to walk off before he abruptly turned around and spoke. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot there should be some blankets, pillows, and a futon in the closet, if you need 'em."

"Thanks," she replied, this time a little impatiently.

"And the other girls should be home a little later if you want me to introduce you to the other residents."

"I'm sorry about now," she replied. "I might be down a little later to meet all of them, but right now I'm really tired. I feel like I have been on my feet for days. I'll have your first month's rent to you in the morning, OK?"

"Oh, it's fine, really. You don't have to get that to me until the end of the month," he said with a smile.

"Thanks again Keitaro," she said, opening the closet and throwing the futon out onto the floor.

When the doors were finally closed, she sighed. "Maybe I should go for a soak in the baths out back," she said to herself, her eyes squinting and blurry from her long journey. She loosened her belt and let her khaki cargo pants fall to the floor. Yawning once, she attempted to step out of them, but instead she tripped on the pants leg unwilling to fully relinquish her young legs from their grip, and she fell onto her futon with a loud thud.

Awkwardly kicking the pants from her legs, she curled her arms around one pillow and wrapped herself up in the warm dark blue blankets. "I'll do it tomorrow," she mumbled, quickly dozing off to sleep as she rested her back against the wall.

"Can you feel it ?" a dark and ominous voice echoed thought an endless blackness.

"Feel what?" another voice hissed back in a demonic tone.

"Of course he can't feel anything. The useless fool couldn't feel a thunderstorm if it clouded up in his ass," another demonic voice said in a low breathy growl.

"Take it back, Wolf," the second voice hissed. "Not all of us are as uncivilized and feral as yourself. Remember last time the master was almost free, but your bestial instincts and bloodlust prevented his escape. That is why you are nothing but a guardian, a lowly errand boy of our master, whereas he trusts his most important tasks to me."

"Silence, Silvertongue. Unless you want to be speaking out of the bloody stump that will soon enough be your neck," the low breathy growling voice grumbled.

"ENOUGH!" the first voice echoed. "We are weak enough as it is, only just being awakened! Much less waiting out strength fighting one another, if either of you wishes to be free, I suggest you spent what little strength we have against these feeble humans before they become wise to our presence."

The deep disembodied voice boomed though the endless blackness, followed by a deafeningly long silence

"We understand. Forgive us master." The two demons voices melded into something like the sound of twisting metal.

"Good. Now, what did you feel Wolf?" the echoing voice asked.

"The essence and strength of one of the humans has increased tenfold master, though I cannot sense the source. It remains hidden to me at the moment."

"Couldn't sense a thunderstorm..." the hissing voice said under its wheezing breath.

"Are you sure that it is the same essence that increased?" the master asked. "It could have been someone else that entered."

"I am sure of it, Ryukyu-sama..."

The wolf sprit intended to say more but was cut off by the deafening boom of the Master's voice rolling as violently and majestically as thunder in the mountains during the monsoon season.

"DO NOT use my name so carelessly Ookami-oni! These walls have ears that are not our own, and so do some humans."

"Forgive me master, I thought it once again ancient times."

"That time will come once more my brother, but until that era re-emerges, bide your time, gain your strength slowly, keep a low profile, and most importantly, no direct assaults on any humans until I give the order. I cannot have any of you rushing around making careless mistakes like last time, especially now that the seal has been fully broken."

"Have you both found suitable hosts?" The echoing voice asked.

"Yes my lord," the wolf spirit growled deeply, implying a bow if there had been bodies to the voices.

"And you, Silvertongue?" the voice demanded.

"You told us yourself not to rush my lord," it said with a hiss. "I have several potential candidates lined up. I intend to pick one soon. After all, talented ones such as myself cannot afford the mundane strength and abilities of just any human."

"Wise words indeed, though save your flattery for 'their kind'. You are dismissed," the echoing voice boomed.

"As you wish, my lord," it said with a false sense of humility, only small traces of its hissing remained in its speech. Its essence began to fade from the feeling of the blackness.

"As you wish master," the growling voice said as it began to sink off too.

"One moment Ookami," the first voice said.

"What is it master?" the wolf's voice asked.

"Are you sure that you have chosen a proper host, you know as well as I do that once you have bound yourself to a soul you will no longer be in control of yourself during the day, and at night you will be nothing but a ghost floating in the consciousness of that soul, at the mercy of the bestial desires and hidden evil within that human's heart."

"I understand that very well brother, and I intend not to repeat the mistakes of the past. Too long have our powers waned in these pathetic forms. Forgive me for the past, it was my fault and I intend to make penance for my mistakes, I will not fail you again brother," Ookami growled.

"No. No, you won't," the first voice echoed. "You may go Ookami."

"Yes brother." The Wolf spirits voice and essence faded into the eternal blackness.

"Finally, my time is at hand," the echoing voice laughed, shaking the pillars of the formless world it inhabited alone.

**I would like to give a very speical shout out to MiyukiWolfire for beta reading and helping out if not doing it for me ( puncutation and grammer. Thank you for that very much and for that I would Like to dedicate this fic to you MiyukiWolfire-san ;) **

**I would also like to dedicate this entire fic to a friend of mine named Cheryl for beleiving im my writing as a whole and introduceing me to some rather dark lititure in the past. This one is for you Cheryl )**

**End chapter one. Hopefully you guys liked it, though I must admit this was for me a distraction fic or something I worked on while I was working on my main piece at the moment "The Hinata School of Anything Goes", because my mind works in a weird way and I have to write two things at once to get anything written.**

**Anyways, I figured that I would post this piece and see what the general reaction to it was and whether or not I should continue this fic on those basis. For that reason, reviews, suggestions, and requests are all greatly appreciated, though I already know about my issues with spelling and grammar ;)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Lycan?  
**

No, NO! God no! NOOOO!!! Make the screams stop, please make them stop, I'll do anything if you just make them be quiet!" Shinobu cried out, clawing at the air, her fingers rigid and filled to the tips with fear. She tossed and turned in her makeshift bed, her arms flailing wildly, smacking into and denting the wall behind her as her thighs crushed a pillow she had between them viciously.

She thrashed about wildly and repeatedly against the hard cool wall to her back. Still she showed no signs of waking from her hellish dream.

This went on for some time as she broke out in a sweat, her forehead, legs, and arms covered in perspiration. It became so thick that it dripped off of her almost as if it were a light rain as she thrashed around. It took a while of this restless night terror but she finally broke away. Clamping her hands over her ears, her entire body relaxed and she spoke in a defeated whimper.

"Please stop it, please..." Tears burst forth from her tightly clamped eyes as if a dam holding back the flow of two mighty rivers had just suddenly burst and ran down her face like waterfalls.

It was then that she shot up from the bed gasping for air, her blue eyes exploding open, providing the only illumination in the dark room. "Just a dream, it was just a dream, dreams cant hurt you, they can't hurt me or anyone else," she whispered to herself, breathing heavily and panting, trying her best to regain her breath.

"I should have known that those dreams wouldn't stop just because I'm here now," she told herself as she felt around the darkened room for her pants. "I always get those dreams, especially when they are up to something."

The sounds of fingernails on a chalkboard and the grinding twisting metal filled the vast expanses of her mind as they echoed on from her dreams. 'That much is confirmation that they were here and Kanako has sent me to the right universe. But now can I do what I have to?' Shinobu thought to herself.

"I may as well get something to eat," she thought out loud, wiping the sweat from her forehead as she stood up and clumsily stepped into her kakis. She stumbled all the way to the door, trying to pull them on, and finally getting the zipper up as she stumbled out into the hallway.

The floors were slightly chilly to the touch of her bare feet, but it could get cold at night here even now in the middle of August, she remembered as she walked down the hallway and to the kitchen. The bottoms of her pants legs slightly swished along the floor, and wrapping up around the bottoms of her feet, threatening to pull them down once more as she walked in the dimly lit hallways.

Through feel and instinct she made her way down the stairs, through the lobby, and into the kitchen.

'It's good to be back here, back in my own domain,' she thought as she reminisced about all of the glorious meals she had cooked for the residents of the dorm and all of the times she had got to spend with her sempai here.

She took in a deep breath of the cool summer air and shuffled towards the refrigerator, enjoying each and every step as though she was returning after a decade at war. However, much to her surprise, when she opened the fridge the light from it spilled out into the room. quickly revealing that she was not alone.

Someone who had walked into the kitchen from outside let out a sharp, high-pitched gasp and Shinobu turned around, ready to fight.

"I'm sorry," the owner of the voice whimpered as she seemed to shrink down into the shadows of the kitchen.

"Sorry for what?" Shinobu asked, recognizing the girl. "I was the one that snuck in here for a midnight snack."

"It's nothing," the other girl insisted. "You must be the new girl everyone's been talking about. I'm Shinobu Maehara," the small girl said with an uncharacteristically scarred and fake smile.

"Shinobu Mirumoto," the older Shinobu replied, lying. "Kind of funny isn't it? The fact that we have the same name?" she asked, trying to cheer the younger version of herself up.

"I suppose so. I didn't think Shinobu was that common of a name, but now I kind of understand why everyone's been talking about you," she replied.

"Everyone's been talking about me?" the older Shinobu asked. "Why? What kind of things have they been saying?"

"Nothing much really..." Shinobu replied, probably sorry she said what she did, already she started to shrink timidly back into the corner in an attempt to hide herself not only from the new girl, but also from her own insecurities. "They just said you were beautiful and you only slept during the day, and that you were a little weird, and, well, pretty, too."

"Did they now?" she asked. "Did they tell you I'm a vampire hunter as well? And you have to drink vampire blood to do that, you know," the older Shinobu said with a large smile and a wink.

"What?! So why are you up? Are you saying there are vampires around?" Shinobu said, standing there with her jaw open and shaking timidly in a state of shock. Either this girl was crazy or there were really were vampires around, although the first was much more likely.

"Nah, I was just joking," she said with a chuckle. "So how about you? What are you doing up at this hour?" she asked, grabbing something from the shelf and closing the refrigerator door behind her as she started to walk towards the girl. "Need to talk about something?"

"Oh no, it's nothing, I just wanted to get everything ready for tomorrow," she said shyly.

"A little early for that, isn't it?" Shinobu smiled at the younger version of herself, scratching her head with her free hand.

"Yeah," the younger one replied sheepishly. "It's just that for a while now it's been really hard for me to sleep, and working in the kitchen just relaxes me."

"Well, if there's anything you need to talk about," Shinobu offered once more.

"No, I'm fine," the younger Shinobu said timidly. "I'm ok. I really don't have to do anything here, so I think I will just go back to my room now."

"Well, I got what I wanted too, so see you tomorrow I guess," the elder replied heading toward the door herself.

As the two started out of the kitchen and towards the dining room, Shinobu suddenly felt the ends of her long hair begin to tingle. At about that same time, the ground shook ever so slightly before something large smashed through the window, heading right for them.

"Down!" she yelled, throwing herself on top of the younger girl as the beast shot through the air where they had been just milliseconds before.

Shinobu gritted her teeth as she felt its claws sink into the side of her left arm when they fell to the floor. With their heads down, all the two girls could hear was the scratching of claws on hardwood flooring, and the sliding and smashing of things in the other room as the creature was apparently fleeing from something, but from or for what remained a mystery.

Shinobu raised her head, throwing her long hair out of her face with a quick whip of her head and surveyed the damages, her arms still wrapped around the young girl she was shielding. The only thing she could see was the wispy white color of something sliding around in the next room.

In its wake, the creature had smashed the table, scratched up the floor, and taken a section of the door frame about the size of a television out as it apparently slid through the halls, somehow unable to get any traction with its claws on the hardwood floors of the Hinata Inn.

She sprang to her feet, ready to give chase when the large beast managed to get some traction, digging its claws into the couch, then launching itself forward, smashing through one of the hotel walls to get outside, splintering wall and studs alike as if they were mere toothpicks.

"It's ok, you can get up now," she said to Shinobu a moment or so later.

"Wh-wha-wha-what was that thing?" Shinobu asked, shaking from the trauma of what had just happened.

"I don't know," She replied, half lying. About that time there came a crashing and Keitaro burst into the room, throwing on the light switch, his socks sliding on the just-waxed hardwood floors, causing him to slip and land on his back with a hard thud. Immediately after that Motoko burst in, wearing a basic robe, her sword in hand and Naru in a pair of pajamas, her thick coke-bottle glasses hanging from her face.

"What happened here? I heard a huge crash a moment ago," she asked, more like demanding to know what had just happened. "Was this your doing Keitaro!?!" she yelled.

"Wahhhh… of course not!" he said in a somewhat panicked tone as he pulled himself up off of the floor.

"Well, Urishima, with these two young women here I wouldn't be surprised if you tried to..." Motoko began.

"Shinobu you're bleeding!" Keitaro exclaimed, interrupting Motoko as he looked at the older one.

"I am?" she asked, looking down to where Keitaro was staring. Sure enough, red liquid was seeping from her flesh and slowly running down her arm in small crimson streams and dripping onto the floor.

"Oh that. It's no big deal," she said nonchalantly, reaching across and gripping it with her right hand as she started to leave the room.

"I don't think that's just anything, Shinobu," Keitaro said. "Now you sit down so we can get you patched up. Naru, get the first aid kit, little Shinobu. help me tear up this table cloth so we can dress the wound," he said, taking the table cloth of the floor and began ripping it into shreds.

A moment or so later, Naru reappeared through the kitchen door, carrying a first aid kit.

"Thanks," Keitaro replied. "Just set it down here. Now, can either of you explain what just happened?" he said as he proceeded to cleanse the gash on Shinobu left arm with some disinfectant.

She winced when the cleaning liquid hit the wound and began burning and foaming, but she replied coolly. "I didn't see much, all I know is that something big and white came flying through that window right at us, we ducked, and here we are."

"You, Shinobu?" he asked the smaller one.

She shook her head. "That's it, just like she said." She curled her limbs in to herself uncomfortably.

"Did anyone else see anything?" Keitaro asked. glancing at the other two girls in the room.

"Absolutely nothing," Naru replied, seeming to almost take insult at the fact Keitaro had questioned her. "If it hadn't been for the smashing noises, I would still be asleep."

"Motoko, you gather anything from this?" Keitaro asked as he and Naru put the finishing touches on Shinobu bandages.

"Some," she replied somberly as she continued to observe the chunks of missing door frame and the parts of the floor that were scratched up. The shavings seeming to coil up on the floor beside the deep gouges that were left.

The swords mistress bent down and ran her finger along the gouges, attempting to follow them and gauge their size, as well as possibly gain knowledge of the aura this creature possessed.

After some further examination and a good look at the chunk of the wall that was missing, leading to the outside, she turned around, arms folded in the sleeves of her kimono, her blade resting between her breast she spoke. "Well, it's certainly not a natural creature, even a large Dire wolf, though they would leave claw marks of similar size and shape, wouldn't be able to plow through that half meter thick wall."

"So you're saying it was a wolf?" Naru asked.

"Not specifically, however, there are certain things that lead me to believe that the creature that entered this place was of supernatural origin." There was a brief pause when she mentioned the supernatural. "No, it can't be!" she said, scratching her head and speaking more to herself than anyone else.

"Can't be what?" Naru asked.

"It's nothing, nothing at all. Just a legend, a myth, some superstition from a long dead era halfway around the world. It has no basis in fact."

"Then why are you trying to hide it from us?" Little Shinobu said, still trembling as she found herself huddled against Naru for security.

"Whatever it was it tried to kill me and it hurt Shinobu over there," she said.

"I'm fine, seriously," Shinobu said. She still held her arm. a little blood seeping through the bandages.

"That's not what I meant. What is it Motoko?" Shinobu nearly screamed as she ran to her side and began to tug at her robe. "If you're holding out on us because you think we will be safer not knowing then you're wrong!"

It was then that the young girl stopped and let go of Motoko's robe. "I'm sorry," she said in a near whimper, sinking to her knees. "I didn't mean any of that, Motoko. I know you wouldn't ever do anything like that, I'm so sorry, I was just scared."

"I know Shinobu," she said, her tone shifting to a warm motherly one, patting the girl on the top of the head. "To make it up to you I'll tell you everything I can about it in the morning, ok?" She gave the blue-haired girl a warm but seemingly shallow smile.

"Ok," Shinobu said, sniffling, her tears slowly drying away.

"Good. There's no need to worry right now, especially since it will be tomorrow before I can get any answers."

"Yeah, Motoko's right." said Naru. "Let's go on up and get you back to dreamland, alright?"

Shinobu just gave a weak smile as she and Naru walked through the doors.

"I think we're turning in for the nigh," said Naru as she and Little Shinobu headed up the stairs. "You guys have fun on your little ghost hunt."

"Yeah, I'm sure we will," Keitaro replied without thinking.

Immediately after, there was a dead silence. Motoko waited until the two girls had gone upstairs and the sound of their foot steps had long since disappeared from the echoes of the dorm.

"I didn't want to say this while they were down here, especially in front of Shinobu, but the myth I was talking about is something called a Lycan," Motoko said, looking at Keitaro and the mystery girl with a serious intent burning in her eyes.

"A Lycan? What's that?" Shinobu asked, playing dumb.

"I'm not really that sure," said Motoko, almost as if she had a question mark over the top of her head. "Some sort of wolf demon from what I have heard."

"I know," Keitaro spoke up with a smile. "It was back when me and Naru had to study like crazy for Tokyo U. There was a short section on eastern Europe. Something in that short history mentioned a certain kind of being, a human or humanoid, anyways whenever the moon was full, they would shapeshift into various animals: wolves or bats being the most common; and then terrorize the countryside. That's all I know. How much do I have right, Motoko?" he asked.

"The truth, as far as I know. We of the Aoyama clan really don't know much about them, they are something we havent dealt with." said Motoko, letting her sword scabbard fall to the floor, where she soon began to rest some of her weight on it. "Though from what I have heard about them from my older sister, they were mostly just stories and Medieval legends to scare village children and fools, however even if they do exist, they certainly wouldn't be in Japan. They were supposed to originate in what is called Transylvania. Thats halfway around the world anyway, are you sure you didn't see anything else?" Motoko asked Shinobu, as she was now standing.

"Nope," she replied. "Other than what I told you before: something large and white came smashing through the window, so I shielded the younger girl and myself, that's all I saw."

Motoko knew she was lying, she just felt it but there was nothing she could do to prove it and this angered her greatly.

"Her name is Shinobu," Keitaro spoke in a vain attempt to break the heavy atmosphere.

"Really? That's my name too," Shinobu replied, though her eyes were locked with those of the kendo girl.

"So we have another resident. Urishima, when did this happen?" Motoko asked, her eyes transfixed on those of the new girl, as if she tried to burn a hole in her and get this Shinobu to confess all with her stare.

"Earlier yesterday, though I suspect she fell asleep before she could get anywhere. She told me she had been traveling all around for three days just to find the place. Right Shinobu?"

"That's right," the girl replied, returning the stare, animal-like ferocity burning in her eyes. It was good to see her teacher again, and even better to face her with this kind of tension; the kind of strain that reminded her of when they used to train, but alas, that was another Motoko in another universe. Still, it felt good.

"Why don't you two introduce yourselves," Keitaro said, once again trying to break the heavy and oppressing atmosphere that was hanging between the two girls.

"Motoko Aoyama, a pleasure to meet you," Motoko said with a slight sneer.

"Shinobu Mirumoto, the pleasure is all mine," the shorter one replied smugly as she began to leave the room.

"I know you're not telling me everything, Mirumoto," Motoko whispered as Shinobu passed her.

"And I think you should believe a little more in the legends and myths of other places than just Japan," the blue haired girl whispered in retort, leaving Motoko to stew angrily about everything that had just happened in the kitchen with Keitaro.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

It had taken her a few minutes, but Shinobu had made her way out to the bathhouse, stripped down, and was now basking in the warmth of the hot water in the spring.

'It's so nice to be back here again,' she thought to herself as she loosely held a towel against her chest and sank into the hot water, letting it cradle and surround her. It had been a long time since she had been in the hot springs, and with the dirt and grime she had accumulated over the last couple of days traveling the distance between the worlds still on her, this was heaven.

She leaned up against a rock, took a couple of deep breaths and sank the rest of the way into the water, up to her eyes. She looked out onto the glassy surface of the water and at the reflection of the full moon through a somewhat cloudy sky and the steam that hung about the hot springs, especially around this time in the early morning.

As she watched the clouds roll by in the liquid mirror, her mind began to wander back to her own lifetime where she was Shinobu Maehara, the one and only, when her life was simple, and she was happy just to cook for her sempai and all of the other residents of the girls' dorm.

She found it odd how much she could see the changes in herself just from watching the mannerisms of the younger Shinobu, but that was her alright, up until just a few years ago. Small, timid, and afraid of anything that cast a shadow. However, now she was Shinobu Mirumoto, having taken on the name of an ancient but now extinct clan of demon hunters. She had survived hell on earth, thanks mostly to her friends, all of which were most certainly dead now.

No, as worthless as she had been in the past, it was her turn to repay them for all of their sacrifices, and even though she couldn't save them in her own world, she had traveled to this one (courtesy of Kanako's demon arts), in an attempt to prevent what she had seen in her own world. She had a shot here, though just barely.

'They are starting sooner than I would have guessed they even could have,' she thought to herself . 'Much sooner. That means…'

But before she could get any further with her thoughts, she caught the glimpse of something white moving up on the roof of the bath house and she looked up.

The figure was tall and pale, the moonlight illuminating its figure against the backdrop of the Hinata hot springs dark night sky. With a little further examination, she could see that the silhouette had the outline and the figure of a woman. She was tall and slender with thigh-length dark hair black as the night, dressed in nothing more than a white open karate gi top, which was whipping about in the wind, a loose chest binding and an old style thong-like pair of white panties that looked like they were out of the 1700's.

In a flash, the figure disappeared, swiping at the water where Shinobu was sitting. It then landed on a rock out in the middle of the hot springs, and only a split second later a black-bladed sword drawn, ready to strike.

Shinobu, taking a direct hit, sank further in the water, not moving. A moment later blood slowly began to float to the surface, along with tiny bubbles of air escaping from her limp body. She was doubled over, underwater, and unconscious. The dark foreboding clouds then covered the moon above them, darkening night even more, just as her blood still pouring out, clouded the water above Shinobu's body.

**The plot thickens, who is this figure and what dose it want with out heroine? Ideas suggestions and Request all greatly appreciated. That way I know what to do next, Muahhhahhh.**

**Once again a shout out to MiyukiWolfire for the Beta read and edit I appreciate it. **

**Anyway Ill try and get the next chapter up soon, so the suspense won't become too overwhelming. Later all.**

**Icescythe**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Tangible, Intangible**

Kentaro Sakata and Mutsumi Otohime sat alone in the all but abandoned Hinata teahouse. They were enjoying a well-deserved cup of tea, and a conversation after a long, hard day's work at the café.

"So, now that you have made it into Tokyo U, what are you planning on majoring in while you're there?" Kentaro asked the turtle lady.

"Oh my. I haven't really thought about that," she replied distantly.

"Well, you could always run a restaurant," said Kentaro. "After all, Haruka did leave you to take care of this place till she gets back in a month or so, didn't she?"

"I guess I could do that. It might be a little boring, but then again, if we could have watermelon dishes every day…" she replied, drifting off into fantasy about her watermelon restaurant as Tama flew up and rested itself on her shoulder.

"Myua, myua," the turtle resting on her shoulder purred in her ear.

"Oh, that's right, thank you, Tama-chan," she replied, seeming to talk to the turtle on her shoulder. "Tama says I have been majoring in history, which is good because I have always been fascinated by the history and mythology of Japan, as well as the rest of the world. You know Samurai like Miamoto Mushashi, Jubie, characters like that have always fascinated me, as well as the tales of armies and demons they fought; plus, since I'm from Okinawa, the history of Okinawa martial arts and how they were taught to my ancestors by turtles really intrigues me. I think they made a comic about that in the United States. Anyway, how 'bout you, you've been there for a year already, what are you studying?"

"Well, I don't know how much I buy into those myths and legends, all of that hocus pocus and illogical theory rattles my brain a little bit, but I guess that's why I'm studying business administration and mechanical sciences," he replied.

"Oh, what a shame," Mutsumi said with a dizzy smile. "The myths and legends of the past make us who we are today and can teach us lessons about the present and for the future."

"What's to learn from that? People exaggerate? Now I'll agree with you about myths and legends being part of our heritage, but the stories are ridiculous; if demons really did exist, then they would exist now right? And if that were the case. they would cause no end of trouble in this mortal world of ours wouldn't they? I'm sorry, but as a scientist I cannot believe anything that I don't have real actual facts backing up its existence," said Kentaro, slightly heated.

"Oh well, your loss." Mutsumi returned the comment with a smile. Kentaro could see that her confidence had not in the least been shaken.

"Myua, myua, myua," the turtle on Mutsumi shoulder began to somewhat freak out, cooing in Mutsumi's ear.

"What did you say, Tama?" she asked. "Aaahhh. Uh-huh, yeah, is that right? I suppose we could tell him."

"Tell him what?" Kentaro asked. "As stupid as this sounds, what's that turtle saying to you?"

"Well, Tama says that if you want your proof, look up towards the dorm," Mutsumi replied.

"What!?!" Kentaro spoke loudly. "There is no way that a turtle could..."

It was then that the sound of something booming echoed through the mountains around the Hinata Inn and teahouse. The booming was periodic and rhythmic, and moving their way fast. Immediately, Kentaro ran to the side of the teahouse facing the Hinata all-girls' dorm.

The sounds became louder. **Clack, clack, boom! Clack, clack boom! **The first sounds resembled claws digging into stone, and then as if a giant were pounding on the ground with its colossal fist. It was then that Kentaro caught a glimpse of something barreling down the huge stone stairs of the Hinata Inn. It was large and white. traveling at an incredible pace; so much in fact that its exact size and shape were blurred by its speed.

There was another loud clack, clack, followed by a deafening boom as the creature sprang forth from the stone steps, launching itself into the air, momentarily vanishing from all senses as its white fur blocked out the full moon above. A moment later. the sound of tiles smashing echoed through the teahouse as the beast came crashing down on top of the teahouse roof. From the sound of things, it had lost its traction, and therefore its ability to control itself when it came smashing down on the roof, skidding around uncontrollably, and breaking tiles before it abruptly slipped off the edge of the roof and landed with a loud WHUMP, falling off the highest side of the teahouse.

Kentaro, wanting badly to see what this thing was, rushed to the other side of the café, along with Mutsumi, Tama on her shoulder, and looked over the deck, only to see the large white beast shake itself, off spring to its feet, and launch off into the night skies above the Hinata hot springs.

"What the hell was that?" Kentaro asked after a momentary bout of shock.

"I think _that_ would be your proof," Mutsumi replied with a smile, Tama-chan agreeing with a "Myua!" of his own.

"Well, there's no way we can catch it," Kentaro said excitedly. "But I think we had better head up to the dorm to make sure everyone up there is ok."

"That does sound like a good idea. We wouldn't want to find any mangled bleeding bodies up there, just to realize that they didn't have to die such a gruesome death if we had gotten there earlier to call an ambulance," said Mutsumi with a smile as she and Kentaro left the teahouse and walked up the stairs together.

"Jeez, I don't know if I'll ever get use to this girl," Kentaro said to himself as Mutsumi began to sing to herself skipping up the stairs.

"_Can't you see it's the night again, well we take all of your women and children, and when you run for the lights and you think it's alright, that this might not be the only one in sight, and you cannot feel what I hold inside, and you cannot believe that it's in your mind._

_The shadows will fall and the darkness will crawl, collapse on your mind, kills all that's inside, we beg for forgiveness when the water turns red, we beg for forgiveness when, it's the season of the dead, season of the dead…"_

"So, Mutsumi, tell me about those turtles that taught your ancestors karate," said Kentaro, trying to change the subject from the eerie song Mutsumi was cheerfully singing.

"Well, most of it's just speculation, but it was theorized that back in the day there was an ancient turtle civilization. For 1,000 years, they waged war with the snake people of the sea. The ancient system of karate was born out of the intense warfare, and the need for peasant turtles to fight off the oppressive Naga. The turtles used their size and weight to…"

The two continued up the stairs, Mutsumi still rambling about ancient legends, happy and carefree, while Kentaro anxiously rushed the walk to the dorm to see what had just happened.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

_Meanwhile..._

The dark shadowy figure stood upon the rock in the middle of the hot springs bath, black-bladed sword drawn, growling approvingly as it watched Shinobu's lifeblood pour out into the bath. It did this for some while, watching the girl for any signs of movement, however, there were none; the water was as still and motionless as a stone.

After a while, the figure's approving smile turned to that of skepticism and it began to look suspiciously at the water, as it showed absolutely no signs of movement. As the clouds lifted, letting the light of the full moon shine through once more, the figure's jaw dropped as it was looking at a mere stone laying there just under the water, some seaweed on top of it to mimic hair.

"Honestly, I didn't think you would be that stupid," Shinobu said, exploding up from the water behind the figure, grabbing onto its ankles. They were cold, deathly cold, and stung to the touch, but still Shinobu held on, jerking the feet out from under the apparition, landing it face first on the rock it was perched on just moments before.

"I didn't think you would buy such a simple trick like that," she said, attempting to bring an axe kick down on top of its skull, blood dripping from the wound on her arm as she had loosened the bandage earlier.

However, much to her surprise, the creature blocked the kick with one of its own and then hit her in the chest with another, sending Shinobu sliding backwards in the hot water. "Not bad. Not bad at all," it hissed with a smile, climbing back up on its perch atop the rock. "They told me someone's essence had increased ten-fold, but I should have known better, you are a new resident. I'm surprised you were able to dodge my attack."

"It wasn't hard given how much you telegraph your moves; any decent swordswoman would know that wide swings and long floating jumps like that don't serve any purpose in a real fight" Shinobu said, snuggling the white towel around her chest, just above her bosom.

"So you are skilled; its been forever since I have had a real live opponent I couldn't kill with the first blow," it chuckled "Well, since you're so good, telegraph this!" it hissed, throwing its sword at her and vanishing.

The black blade toppled end over end through the air, throwing an orbit of water out from itself as it spun towards Shinobu, threatening to slice her in half, or impale her through the heart, though it didn't matter which one it was. If she made one wrong move she was dead. As she watched the blade tumble in her direction, everything reverted to slow motion and Shinobu's mind began to wander off to the past...

ZZZZZZZZ

_**Wham, whump, crash! "**__You're hopeless," a woman sighed. _

_"It was a few simple things I threw at you,"_ _said Haruka as she picked Shinobu up to her feet. "I would have thought you could have easily dodged those pots and pans, and if you can't dodge those, how do you ever expect to dodge a sword if someone throws it at you?"_

_"Who throws a sword Haruka, err… Teacher?" asked Shinobu._

_"Why am I cursed with such a lousy ignorant student anyway?" she grumbled. "It's one of the advanced techniques in the Aoyama Gods' Cry School of Swordsmanship, as well as several other schools of advanced Kenjitsu," she said, taking a long hit from her cigarette._

_"So, do you want to give up?" Haruka asked._

_"No," Shinobu growled, angry at herself for messing up again._

_"Good, because I wouldn't let you. Now let's try this technique again," Haruka said, immediately launching the pot at Shinobu..._

ZZZZZZZ

Shinobu saw the sword flying at her just like the pots and pans her teacher had endlessly thrown at her. In less than the blink of an eye, she had read the technique and knew just what to do.

Shifting her weight slightly to the left, she was able to move out of the way of the blade as it sliced harmlessly through the air past her head. However, it was then that she felt something cold wrap itself around her neck, and she felt the cold steel of the blade on her chest.

"If you thought the maneuver was as simple as just dodging a sword, you are truly an amateur," it said, turning the blade around and towards Shinobu's neck. Its freezing limbs seemed to pierce her chest and lungs, slowing her breathing.

"Not quite," the blue-haired girl in the towel replied, a small smile forming on her face. Stomping the shin and foot of the apparition with her right foot, then following up with a powerful right elbow to its gut, she continued on and upward into its chin. She felt its cold jaw and teeth rattle as she turned, grabbing it by the hair of the head with her right hand and jumping up with a hard right knee to the thing's face, finishing it off with a back-flipping left kick off of its chest, and a rag doll body slam against the rocks behind them, throwing it by the hair.

The apparition bounced off the rock it had hit and then smashed into one of the posts that held the bath house roof up, nearly folding in half backwards before it fell down to the hardwood floor with a loud thud.

"I full well know the counter for that move," said Shinobu, somewhat confidently, as she tightened up her towel on her chest and began to walk over in its direction. "My teacher forced me to do that counter for 4 days solid until I was finally able to get it, Amateur!"

"Indeed, you are skilled, but then again I'm not as strong as I should be. This round goes to you, lady of the towel," it growled. Grasping its sword in one hand, it then jumped straight up, launched itself though the roof above it, and bounded off into the blackness of the night. Just as quickly as it had appeared, it had vanished.

"Come back, you coward, and finish the fight!" Shinobu yelled into the night sky, knowing full well that she was in no condition to give chase, still bleeding from one arm. The loss of blood was already making her somewhat dizzy, and the fact that she was all but naked didn't help much either.

"Dammit, apparitions already. This is not good," Shinobu growled under her breath, putting her hands in her face and sinking into the hot water once more.

About this time, Motoko Aoyama burst through the door and into the spring. She also was wearing a towel.

"I don't know what your deal is girl, but you had better speak up and tell me what's happening around here," she demanded, grabbing Shinobu by the shoulders.

"What do you mean?" asked Shinobu blankly. "I'm here at the dorm because I heard an urban legend that whoever lives and studies here can get into Tokyo U.

"You may have them fooled, but I know who you are!" Motoko shouted. "You're Shinobu Maehara, I just know it!"

"No, I'm Shinobu Miruamoto. I know our names sound similar, but we are not the same person," Shinobu lied.

"Stop lying to me already, girl, I know you are the same person because you have the same aura. It was odd at first to see the two of you standing in the kitchen next to each other, but after a few moments it finally hit me. Though your auras have a different appearance externally, they have the same resonance, and therefore you both share the same soul. I don't know why you have come here or where you have come from, but I assure you of one thing: if you intend to harm any of my friends..."

Her heart started pounding and a large lump began to form in her throat. She knew Motoko was good, but to be able to sense the resonance of a soul, and differ that from the external appearance and feel of one's aura was nothing short of amazing. By Shinobu's reckoning, she Motoko would have 3 more years before she was able to use that technique, and another year or so before she was able to master it as well as she already had here.

Truly, things in this universe had evolved faster than those in her own. Of course, maybe it could have been the introduction of her presence into this world. The energy required and released to travel between universes could have sped up the awakening process of the demons, and at the same time that of the others in the dorm. Of course, all of that was based on the theory and speculation Kanako had told her in the few minutes it took her to open the portal between the worlds,so its accuracy could only be speculated.

"Answer me, damn you!" Motoko yelled, shaking the smaller girl about angrily.

"And what if I am?" Shinobu replied surprisingly coolly as she once again shifted her breathing to what Motoko had taught her. "I assure you of this much: I bear no malicious intent for anyone you care about Motoko, and if you know anything about what is going on here, you will let me help you."

"You, help me?" Motoko scoffed. "You talk a good game sister, but I don't see as where you can back up your words with any truth. For all I know, you could be a demon that absorbed a portion of that poor girl Shinobu's soul and merged it with your own in an attempt to take human form, in order protect that beast that nearly wrecked the dorm earlier this evening."

"I am doing no such thing," Shinobu replied calmly, still focused on her breathing.

"Then why not tell me what you REALLY know about it then!?!" the kendo girl said, continuing to bear down on her, gritting her teeth in anger.

"I cannot, because I don't know anything Motoko!" Shinobu replied. "Now if you would let go of me, I'm finished with my bath," she said, shaking Motoko's hands loose from her, even though the kendo girl had a strong grip on her shoulders, and walked out to the bath house.

"Shinobu..." Motoko started to say something, when out of nowhere Su came crashing down into the hot spring, sending water flying in every direction.

"You guys are having a midnight bath-party and didn't invite me?" she asked in a thick accent.

"No, Shinobu was just leaving," said Motoko, evil-eyeing the long haired girl climbing out of the hot springs.

"That's right," she replied, returning a glare of her own before she opened the door and walked into the bath house.

When the door was shut, she let out a long sigh of relief and let her soaking wet towel drop to the floor before she grabbed a fresh one and began to dry herself off.

"I have no idea where that courage a moment ago came from, but facing down Motoko like that and lying to her… what in the hell was I thinking? Still, none of this seems right, things here are progressing too rapidly, and I'm not strong enough to deal with it and..." She began to sink into a state of low self-esteem with each and every word she spoke, but before she could finish her speech to herself, she heard the door behind her slide open and...

"I heard some crashing and yelling and I just stopped by to check in and make sure everyone was alright..." the man that opened the door said in something of a rushed frenzy, but then his brain became aware of what his eyes were showing him, and his body (including his jaw) completely locked up.

ZZZZZZ

There before her stood Keitaro Urashima, an average-looking but handsome young man, all of 21 years of age. Shinobu's face slowly began to turn red, and in a few seconds it fully flushed when she realized that he was staring at her. She was completely nude, having just dropped her towel, and was reaching for her undergarments to get dressed. _'This is bad,' _she thought, her heart beating so fast she thought it was going to explode at any moment.

Then their eyes met, neither one able to avert their gaze from the other, and for a moment, all in time slowed to a near-stop: the second hand on the clock ground to a halt, and droplets of water splashed from various sources hung in the air between them as their minds met through each other's eyes. Each gave the other a longingly deep stare, revealing their own loneliness and wanting for a person that understands them, but when a small drop of blood trickled out of Keitaro nose, its sound seemingly broke the mood of the room and time reverted to normal once more.

Involuntarily, Shinobu let out a shriek and ran into the corner of the room, hiding herself as quickly as possible, while Keitaro simultaneously bowed his head "Waahhhhhh... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He looked up, only to discover that Shinobu was gone and Motoko was in her place, angrily letting the scabbard of her sword raise then fall into the palm of her left hand in a rhythmic beat full of malice and intense bodily harm.

"Motoko, it's not what you think," Keitaro tried to dissuade her, but all was for naught as a moment later the tapping of the scabbard stopped and Keitaro was sent flying backwards through several walls with the powerful boulder-splitting blade.

When the deed was done, Motoko turned around and spoke. "Are you alright, Shinobu? Trust you or not, it is still my duty to protect you from that letch Urashima." However, much to the kendo girl's surprise, Shinobu and all of her clothes were gone. "I wonder where she could have gone off to?" Motoko asked herself, giving the bath house a quick once over before returning to the baths herself. "Anyways good riddance."

ZZZZZZZZ

Kentaro, Mutsumi, and Tama-chan had finished their ascent of the stone steps and were ready to go into the dorm when they heard a terrible crashing coming from out back towards the baths.

They ran around the dorm to get a better view, only to see a dark silhouette dressed in an open white robe launch itself through the roof before taking several more leaps across the rooftops, and then vanishing altogether into the mountains behind the Hinata dorm.

"What is it with these intangible myths and legendary creatures always being able to fly, or some crazy shit like that!" Kentaro yelled at the top of his lungs.

"Maybe that's why there's no proof of the Yeti, he just up and launches himself into the skies and everybody gets bored waiting for him to come down so they leave. Yeah that's right. And the Loch Ness Monster just jumps from ocean to ocean to avoid being pinned down by cameramen. That's it, it has to be," Kentaro ranted in an angry, sarcastic tone.

"You seem surprised Kentaro," said Mutsumi, interrupting him. "Kei-kun does that all the time with a little help from Narusegawa."

"So you're saying Keitaro is an immortal freak of nature, and that cameramen should come here to catch a glimpse of him?" Kentaro asked.

"Well, something like that. Still, the giant onion on top of Tokyo U almost did him in, but that thing's like the size of… well, a watermelon of the gods, or something of the sort," she said, nearly drooling, thinking of a watermelon that size.

"Let's go in and see if everyone is ok in there," Kentaro said.

About that time there was a loud crashing noise and Keitaro came plowing through the wall, splaying out on his back just in front of the two.

"Speak of the devil. Hey, Keitaro, everything alright in there?" Kentaro asked as Keitaro laid on the ground groaning, pieces of the wall in his back.

"Yeah, just peachy. No, what the hell do you think!" he angrily retorted.

Mutsumi bent down. "Are you ok, Kei-kun?" she asked. "is there anything I can do for you?"

"Yeah, if you would. Could you get this 2x4 out of my spleen, and help me inside? I would appreciate it, there's someone I got to find."

"Sure thing," she replied, jerking the piece of wood from his back and tossing its bloody 2x4edness off into the night, where it bounced off of a tree and ricoched back, clocking her upside the head and consequently putting her out where she fell on top of Keitaro.

He sighed. "I don't know if I'll ever get used to this woman, or you for that matter, Urashima." Kentaro said, bending down to pick both of them up. "You two are made for each other. You know that don't you?"

"So I've heard," Keitaro said with a slight chuckle. "Ouch, ow, it hurts to move," Keitaro whined as Kentaro did his best dragging the two around the building.

"Well, it is a side effect of living at an all-girls' dorm isn't it?" Kentaro asked between heavy breaths.

"Yeah I, ouch, guess so," he replied.

"So tell me Urashima, is it ever worth it?"

"Some of the time," Keitaro replied with a grin on his face. "Some of the time."

ZZZZZZZZZ

_A few moments later…_

Shinobu found herself on the highest roof of the Hinata dorm, looking out over the city, trying to find peace and a place to dry her tears. With all of the demonic activity in the last hour or so it had already been one wild first night at the Hinata. But what she was crying about had very little to do with all of that, demons and apparitions she was use to dealing with, but for Keitaro, her sempai, to have seen her like that in the bath-house…

Naked, and full frontally too, she didn't know if she could bear the shame, the embarrassment. She saw the way he looked at her with those 'I'm-surprised-by-you-naked-girl-but-I'm-not-entirely-impressed' eyes. "Am I really so little of a woman that he looks me in the eye?" she asked herself between sobs and drying her tears. "Why didn't he look at me? Why wasn't he filled with lust for my body? Wait a minute, what the hell am I thinking?" she asked herself.

"Did I really feel that strongly about him?" she asked herself, wiping her tears on the black sleeve of her two-toned white and black Cabot shirt. "But he has Naru and... and…" The tears returned and even the breathing techniques Motoko taught her couldn't stop them.

Shinobu knew she was fighting a loosing battle with herself over the idea of her and Keitaro but she couldn't bring herself to give it up. It was then she felt a strong yet gentle hand on her shoulder. Her crying subsided and she felt an unnatural comfort overwhelm her for the first time since she had arrived here.

She turned her head around, and, sure enough, it was him. Her mouth opened, ready to speak, but she choked and no words found their way out of her throat. "Shush..." Keitaro gently said placing his finger to her lips.

"If anyone owes someone an apology its me," he said calmly. "Mind if I sit here?" he asked.

Shinobu shook her head, and a moment later he was sitting beside her.

"Look Shinobu, I'm really sorry about earlier, I didn't mean to burst in like that and see you all... well..." He blushed slightly.

Shinobu's crying had by now stopped and her voice returned. "It's, it's, it's alright, Keitaro," she replied. "I know you had heard a crashing and were just rushing in to see that everyone was alright. I know you didn't mean to see me like, like you did."

Keitaro had to shake his head several times as with each word he saw not the lovely young lady that was sitting beside him, looking out over the town of Hinata Hot springs, but the tiny, shy, younger Shinobu, as if she were the one talking to him and not the older, more mature, tough one that was really talking to him at the moment.

"So, how did you know you would find me here?" she asked, breaking Keitaro free from his illusions.

"Are you sure that you and Little Shinobu aren't related?" he asked her, his tone slightly more lighthearted and free.

"Yes, I'm sure," Shinobu replied a quizzical look on her face. "Why?"

"Ah, it's nothing. It's just that if the same thing happened with little Shinobu, this is the first place she would come. Since your names are the same, I figured that I would look here first. Kinda silly huh?" he said, rubbing his head with one arm and giving her that classic Keitaro smile once more.

"Not so much," she replied, her heart and tone warmed by Keitaro's smile. "I guess we Shinobu's are just more similar than people think. It's the view up here that gets me," she said with a smile, changing the subject. "From here we can see the entire city, as well as the mountains and the ocean. I just feel comfortable up here," she said, suddenly wrapping her arms around one of his and snuggling up against him.

"Yeah me too, me too," he replied with a smile as they continued on into the night, just doing random nothings and enjoying each other's company.

**End chapter 3 The song is the first verse of a song written by a friend of mine so by no means do I own it or claim any rights to it, so a special shout out to INUENDO for ****Season of the Dead.**** I appreciate it, guys. **

**Anyway, it's a song about vampires, and I thought it would be humorous and somewhat fitting to the mood of the story if Mutsumi was singing something rather dark, in the classically sweet way she would. If anyone wants to see the full song, tell me, and it will appear in another chapter down the line.**

**As for all of those out there that think the Kentaro/Mutsumi parts were a little out of place in the fic, there is a reason for it; just give it a few more chapters.**

**would also like to give a very speical shout out to, MiyukiWolfire, Warbender and Hollowheart15 for believing in this crazy fic, thanks guys. **

**Icescythe**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Who dares sleep, dares dream.**

Five weeks had passed since that fateful night when Shinobu was attacked and faced off against the apparition, five uneventful boring-as-hell weeks.

"Thank god," Shinobu said to herself. She wasn't expecting to fight anything so soon as when she had just arrived at the Hinata dorm, all of this certainly made her feel that all of the events had taken place much too fast and were not accurate to the calendar of her world. But what was she to expect? Although the worlds were parallel, they were not identical. More than likely events would remain similar while it was the time frames that would shift. But of course this was all just theory.

Still, every night she would wander about the forest and sounding mountains as well as the rooftops of the Hinata dorm, searching for any sign of the apparition or the Lycan she had seen earlier. Though her suspicions were eased with the uneventful passing of the full moon a week ago, she still wondered how long this calm would last, always waiting for things to blow wide open like they had in her world.

She began to wonder if what had happened was nothing more than her paranoid over-active imagination and the trauma she had experienced in her own universe; after all, living in the space between parallel worlds could do that to a person.

She was beginning to wonder if the whole world around her was going crazy, leaving only her the only one that knew the truth about this place, the only sane one. Or if it was much the reverse and she was the one slowly going crazy since she had fallen into this world from her own.

There were so many thoughts to organize, she thought, so many questions that lacked but so desperately needed answers.

As she sat down on the rooftop overlooking the city, she thought about her life here in comparison to what it was in the past. In truth, it wasn't really that different than it had been in the past. She and Su were just about the same on speaking terms, and now for once in her life she was athletic and able enough to avoid getting caught in the crossfire of Su's various inventions and schemes. This was definantly a plus not afforded her in her youth.

She and Naru were on better terms than she had been in her previous life; Naru was now her study buddy, and strangely enough, seemed not to be able to tell that Shinobu was thinking of stealing Keitaro away from her right under her nose. Of course, between her classes and new job as a teacher she wasn't home very often to even be able to tell.

She and Kitsune were ok, but like before they never really talked much, and since Shinobu didn't indulge in the partying lifestyle the two had even less to talk about. Sometimes, like in the other world, Kitsune would disappear for sometimes several days at a time, before showing up on the doorstep drunk and with little (if any) recollection of what had happened in the last couple of days.

It wasn't that different than before, but still something felt strange, and was something Shinobu wanted to avoid.

The younger version of herself she spoke to on a rare occasion. It was usually just in passing or a compliment about the food the other would cook, and although they were technically the same person, and it was supposed to feel as natural as thinking to oneself, they never seemed to be able to talk, as if there was some fear within them.

Strangely, it was a mutual thing: they seemed to repel each other much like similar poles of magnets, whenever one would enter the room the other would leave, whenever one of them would cool the other would go to the roof and mope for a while. It was a strange feeling, repelling one that resembled a certain kind of primal fear, an unwillingness to get to close to and learn about each other, much as a person fears getting to close to or accepting parts of themselves, although they are just parts of the same person, it's still hard to confront and even harder to accept.

As for Motoko, the two had not said one word to each other since that night in the hot springs, and the tension was so thick between them they even went so far as to change their own eating schedules and training times so as not to attract the attention of the other.

It was certainly a volatile situation and Shinobu knew that. She wished that the kendo girl had listened to her and would have accepted her help, but as stubborn as Motoko was, that option proved basically impossible.

Still, Shinobu had told her the truth, as far as she knew, about the goings-on at the Hinata Inn. While it was true she knew that beings of supernatural origin would begin gathering around the Hinata dorm, she had never found out the source of the draw or why they were doing it. The inn itself just seemed to be a focal point for something, something bigger and worse than mere words could explain.

All in all things were about as good as she could expect, after all she was an outsider and it wasn't every day that someone new could make it at the Hinata girls dorm. The entire thing reminded her of her first couple of months here when she was 12.

'This was her life,' Shinobu thought, letting out a long drawn-out sigh as she laid down on the rooftop and looked at the stars. They were a bright and shining bunch, especially on this hot stuffy August night. As she watched them, it reminded her of the night she and Keitaro had spent the whole night laying up here, watching for shooting stars, and talking about everything and anything under the sun, or the moon for that matter.

It was one of the best nights of her life, it reminded her of that time she had attempted to run away on Sabbatical like Naru and Keitaro had the year before. But Keitaro had ended up taking her on a date and though she naively thought that was the night she was going to lose her virginity, they had ended up studying instead.

It was one of those kind of nights: unpredictable, full of anxiety, and completely different than anyone had expected it to be. It was really great; it felt as if she and her sempai had really clicked, even if he kept on mentioning Naru the entire time.

'He was still in love with her.' There was no doubt about that in Shinobu's mind as she rested her hands underneath her head and shut her eyes. "Still, I might have a chance if I show him all the things I never got to in the past; and technically now I'm older, so I might have a chance.'

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZz

As she said those words and tried to reassure herself, Shinobu began to slip off to sleep, and her mind floated back to the past, where in an instant she was back in the void between the two worlds.

_Running for all she was worth from the things that inhabited this dark plane, her lungs were burning and her legs had long lost their feeling as she pushed ever closer to the light before her._

_This void was a nightmarish place, a place where all the planes of the universe seemed to merge into one giant labyrinth, it was much like a series of bridges over a bottomless chasm full of demonic red eyes, staring upward, looking lustfully for what soul they could taint and devour next._

_Kanako had called this place Darken, or the shadow realm that connected two worlds. There were many theories she developed about this dark place and the demonic magics that seethed and permeated from this place._

_She was lucky for the training Motoko had given her before the fall, if not for that it was unlikely that little Shinobu would have even been able to hold onto her soul for a full ten minutes within Darken, much less the three days of hell she sustained there._

_Just like Kanako said, Shinobu didn't stop running for 3 whole days, not once looking back to see what was persuing her, to get a glimpse of the massive beast and apparitions that she could hear chasing her as they tore at and rended the stone of the bridges and towers of Darken. For she was warned if she deviated from her course even just a little bit and stayed in Darken too long, trained by Motoko or not, she would go mad from the sheer exposure to Celestial energies of the Gods and demons alike. That was something she wished to avoid._

_It was on the un-dawning of the fourth day that she had managed to find the light and dove through the closing momentary gap between the worlds that she appeared in the current world, a few hundred feet or so above the ocean, several miles out from the city of Hinata._

_It was some freefall dive and a hell of a swim in, but after several hours Shinobu was able to pull her nearly drowned carcass up onto the beach. Unable to move any further, she spent the rest of the day and the following night there, sleeping until she had recovered enough of her strength to walk into town._

She sighed half asleep, as she remembered the past. It was a hell of a journey getting here, but that was only the beginning. She knew things would turn quickly, especially from what she had seen on her first night in the dorm, so she made it a point to enjoy the calm before the storm, because she could already begin to feel the dark and ominous winds begin to blow.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZz

Tsuruko Aoyama ran at a breakneck pace through the summer underbrush of the deep forest sounding the mountains of Kyoto. He pet crane, persuading them from the bird's eye view as the waning crescent moon cast an eerie light on the terrain sounding them.

"Grrrrrr! How could we be so stupid!" she growled. "Letting an insider in and then losing track of such a powerful artifact."

She silently cursed the incompetence of her sisters in the school, it was because of them that she was forced out of her peaceful retirement and back on the trail of hunting demons and apparitions once more. The Aoyamas were becoming soft and weak, the blood of Jubie had long since waned in their veins and few still had hints of its essence writhing in them.

She wished she had her blood sister Motoko by her side and not these slackers from the school. She knew all too well that the elders had shifted their focus from hunting and killing demons to becoming bodyguards for rich and powerful individuals.

_In her eyes it was a disgraceful practice and made the students weaklings, unable to fulfill their true purpose, and then sending them unprepared to fight beings not of this world. She knew a lot about fighting the supernatural, and one thing to be known about fighting demons is it's not like fighting men. _

_She remembered standing before the elders and giving her speech as the Shinmei-Ryu of her clan and the Gods Cry School of Swordsmanship, and still they wouldn't listen, they only talked about how times had changed, and if they didn't change with them they would collapse under the financial strain and be lost to time as nothing more than memories._

_Tsuruko was not the biggest advocate of tradition as she had went against it to marry, but it was that very tradition and secrecy that had kept them alive over the years in their dangerous endeavors and it surprised her that the very elders that had sworn to uphold those timeless codes of honor were willingly . . . no, eagerly, going against them._

Because of this she was not surprised when she heard her first scream.

It was a loud and terrified scream filled with pain and suffering, it echoed through the mountains, shaking tree branches, rattling eardrums, and flushing the local wildlife from the bushes, before it was prematurely cut off, almost as if...

Tsuruko stumbled out into a small clearing in the deep mountains, the pale moonlight illuminating the grass and the stones around her, and it was there that what she saw made her sick to her stomach.

A pile of bodies, bloody dead bodies, stacked ever so messily before her, their red life blood shining dimly in the light of the waning crescent moon. There had to be 20 or so of them, priests-in-training, exorcists and swordsmen alike, she regnoized those who were there as the troops the Clan has sent after the artifacts, all of them were there save one, the commanding officer.

The smell of death hung heavy in the air as Tsuruko felt all around the area, sensing with everything she had in order to find this creature that had done this.

Her intangible senses were interrupted then.

Thump, thump, thump. She opened her eyes, only to see the bloody disembodied head of their commanding officer hit the ground in front of her and roll to a stop at her feet.

"You want to kill me for what I've done, don't you Aoyama?" She heard a sickly voice wheeze from tree tops.

"Yes, but it was the commander's foolishness and the elders laxness in training that killed them off, so you do understand this is nothing personal," she said, a sinister grin beginning to form on her face.

She began to laugh as she grabbed onto the sheath of her Nodatchi, took one small step and disappeared into the blackness of the night.

She reappeared a moment later beside the murder site, her hair still swept up in the wind of her own swiftness, as her foot hit the creature in the stomach, doubling its demonic form over, forcing it to spew blood from its mouth and nose.

"Hmp, to be so foolish as to think I had some sort of misplaced emotions, and that you could throw me off so easily, is an insult," she growled as she continued to brutalize the creature with her sandaled feet so quickly that nothing of her could be seen but the trail of her movements.

There were innumerable more direct hits before a blinding flash of white light and the two combatants landed in the middle of the clearing a few meters apart from each other.

"Hahahahahahahah, is that all you have Aoyama?" said the figure, holding the area over its heart with its hands. "If that's all you have then I have nothing to worry about."

"No, that's not anything at all," Tsuruko said with a maniacal grin. About that time blood squirted from the base of every limb of the creature and it collapsed to the ground in pieces.

"Its been a long time since I have dealt with your kind. They are almost extinct now if I'm correct, and those little artifacts you stole are worthless if there aren't any of you around to use them. Oh, and be a dear, do say hi to your master in hell for me," she said with a certain sweet and sharpness to her voice as she pulled something from her belt, ignited the end of it, and threw it onto the writhing pile of body parts.

There was a bright flash and a large explosion as the fire consumed the pieces of the beast she had sliced and diced up. It was not contained there and it soon spread through the clearing to the rest of the bodies, consuming them and the entire clearing in a wild blaze within seconds.

"Come Shippu," said Tsuruko she set out. She offered her shoulder for her pet crane to land on, and she seemed to wade through the flames like an apparition herself as they consumed the forest around her. "I'll say a prayer for your souls, sisters, and for those of the elders!" she growled. The flames seemed to wrap around her body and become additional appendages as she strolled through the blazing forest like a demon herself.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZz

'_That was two and a half years ago,'_ thought Tsuruko with a satisfied smile as she awoke. She was in her prime then, she had only just left the clan to settle down with her husband before being called back for one last mission just three weeks after the wedding.

She sat up, holding a sheet tight as she lay completed next to her man. It was a great sacrifice she had made to choose him over the clan. _'But it was well worth it,'_ she thought as she gently stroked his jet black hair. She had achieved a sense of comfort and a place to belong, a life of joy and peace.

"She smiled as she looked at him. 'they would be starting a family soon' she thought remembering their discussion earlier this month it as something she had always wanted and now it was within her reach.

The retired swords mistress looked at her husband just a few moments longer before she rose form the bed, she snatched up a robe and threw it on letting it hang from her shoulders as she wandered into the living room grabbing a bottle of plumb wine and a sake cup on her way through the kitchen.

Sigh those were the good old days." she said with a sigh. reminiscing about her demon hunting. The artifacts they were looking for that night were never found but what use could they possibly be to something that was all but extinct' She thought nothing more than a vain attempt to prolong the inevitable.

Tsuruko wished she could have taken Motoko with her on that Mission, of for nothing more to Steel her nerves and make her more suited for the position of **Shinmei-Ryu **for the gods cry Scholl of martial arts.

"That was no easy place to be as not only would she be expected to be the best fighter in the entire school but also would have to have a will string enough to resist caving into the demands of the foolish elders that had come to power recently.

"Oh well she would soon enough become aware of her destiny once more and weather she liked or not she was going to have to choose her path in this world soon enough, Tsuruko would make sure of that soon enough one way or the other.

She remembered seeing the disappointment in her sisters eyes when she Had beaten her, and no longer was under obligation to Marry that boy, well more like young man." After all Tsuruko was no fool and she could see the love her younger sister had for that boy, no young man.

After all he was only a few years younger than herself and even though he tried not to show it he cared very deeply for her little sister, even going so far as to help Motoko fight against her in the mountains just last year, right before his trip to The united states.

"No doubt he has grown." she thought as she shot a small cup of wine then refilling it. "She would make a hell of a woman or a Swordsmistress, or possibly both." The elder sister thought she just had to be nudged, well kicked in the right direction. "She thought smiling to herself as her sister had apparently inherited her own stubborn streak.

She sat there for some time in the dark, simply enjoying this time in solitude not moving other than to take a drink and refill her cup as she pondered the past, the present and the ever so elusive and unpredictable future. She was indeed one happy woman content to leave the life of the blade behind her for more, domestic pursuits, but was her sister the same way? could she really give up on one and truly be happy with her life without both?"

"Damn this would be an easy setup if only Ranma Saotome were real." She mumbled to herself. "Then I would have no problem, getting her to fall in love, and continue on as a Swordswoman, sigh but alas, Life is never as simple as the manga is it." she said with a smile standing up.

She was tipsy now and Tsuruko stumbled back towards her bedroom, letting the robe fall to one shoulder, nearly exposing herself. After all, that was part of the plan; she was going to wake up her husband and...and...

She walked through the door, wiggling her hips all the way up to the bed, ready to throw open her robe and dive into the sea of covers. By then, her eyes had adjusted to the faint light of the night.

Dumbstruck and in shock, her jaw dropped, just seeming to hang open, and she fell to her knees, her hands hitting the bed in front of her.

Her mouth still open in shock, she realized her hands were warm and wet. She would recognize that smell anywhere, anywhere but here in her own house, in her own bed room. That's when it hit her like a smack in the face from a cement-mixer truck.

She jumped to her feet, throwing the sheets from her bed, hoping that there was something, _anything_, anything at all that could be done to wake her from the worst nightmare she had ever imagined.

It could have been a dream, it should have been a dream, Why the fuck wasn't it a dream?! Everything inside of her screamed as her husband lay there in nothing more than his light blue boxer shorts, now stained the crimson color of his blood as it soaked both him and the mattress he lay on.

She picked up his bloody hand in hers, marvelling at its manliness, its comfort, its warmth . . . and its now lifelessness. Gently she crawled into bed beside him, her friend, her lover and her husband, placing his hand against the fair skin of her face. Blood smeared itself all on her pale and flawless skin, and tears began to fall from her brown eyes as she felt no pulse, no breath, not even any ki; his soul was gone, bled out through massive wounds covering his gouged, but not mangled, body. It covered the bed, the walls, and even her now as she curled up in his arms, one last time, crying, laughing, shaking, cursing, and praying all at the same time.

He, he that had made her life complete was so prematurely taken away from her, how could she live with herself now, but more importantly, how could she live with herself at all? She thought as she pulled his limp body into her bosom one final time, as she screamed the wail of a widow, a widow that had poured her whole life and dreams into one man, into one goal, and now in an instant, it was all taken away from her.

She wished she had been there, if nothing more than to die silently by his side as they bled to death together, anything would have been better than this fate, her curses reaching heaven.

The husband and wife leaned against each other on the bed for the final time, both now drenched in blood, both robbed of their dreams of a normal but happy life, and most importantly, both dead, one on the outside and one deep within.

**End chapter 4. So what was the thing that killed Tsuruko's husband, what will become of her now, and will Shinobu get the guts to reveal her feelings to Keitaro before it once again is too late and Naru gets him again? **

**Reviews, suggestions, and ideas all very welcome, the story should pick up soon.**

**Also, once again I give all credit for the spelling and grammar to MiyukiWolfire for being my beta reader. Thanks sister.**

**Icescythe**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Along came Seta**

Shinobu was asleep now, her hands under the back of her head, her breaths were deep, peaceful, and rhythmic. "she indeed was enjoying the clam before the storm." thought Keitaro as he climbed up on the roof. He paused once to look into the far off eastern horizon, almost as if her were looking for a storm himself.

Keitaro looked at the girl, a smile forming on his face as he placed a light blanket over top of her.

"Sigh she was a strange girl.' The apartment manager though at he continued to watch over her, almost every night she would spend up on the roof, just pacing around with a watchful eye. 'it was almost like she were expecting something, searching looking for something lost to her long before Possibly in a previous life."

'Of course that was only if you believed in such things' Keitaro said to himself as he let out a sigh and sat down beside of her, he remembered the night that hey had spent on this very spot on this same roof, it had felt almost as if they had known each other for a number of years, and not just in a couple of passing conversations they had had that day.

She was filmier to him, something, no someone comfortable to be around, not that the other girls weren't comfortable around, of course that is if one didn't mind going to the emergency room every other hour but that was besides the point.

"Anyway' thought Keitaro as he looked down upon her she was holding onto the blankets contently and mumbling something about Tokyo U and her sempai.

She's cute when she dose that." He said with a smile taking one last glance at her. "I just wish I could place this felling I have about her, it seems if I have known her forever almost like we could have been lovers in a past life or something, but there I go again with those silly superstitions. ' He said to himself "and I have Naru now and..."

"Sleep tight Ronin, Shinobu Murimoto." He whispered distracting himself from his own self rant, making sure that she was tucked in. "I'm pulling for you to get into Tokyo U this year." And with that he accidentally walked off the roof of the dorm, smashing into the ground with a hard thud just in front of Naru.

"Where have you been?" She asked the twisted mess that was Keitaro twitching body.

"Oh nowhere." he replied jumping to his feet and giving her that daft, but somewhat nervous scratching his head with one hand smile of his, now somehow completely unscathed.

"Humph I bet you were up in the roof again, checking out that strange girl that sleeps up there!" She said getting angry.

"Now why would you say that?" he asked now nervously as a gust of wind rushed by.

"Because of this." she said holding out her arm and catching a blanket that had fallen from the roof.

"I'm sorry Naru its not what you think!" He jumped to his knees and began to apologize, before she punted him into the side of the building.

About the same time up in the roof, Shinobu's calm demeanor changed to something more nervous as the wind carried the blanket from her and with it her warmth and security.

No please don't, not again!" she mumbled curling herself up into the fetal position, shaking with the sheer strain of her mussels as she unconsciously tried to defend herself from something.

"The voices were back only this time they weren't just the random sounds of twisting and tearing metal writhing and groaning under unimaginable stress, but now words in the aforementioned likeness. She could understand them though barely as primal fear gripped her in her sleep once more.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZz

Well after the time she drifted off Shinobu was awaken from her sleep by the sound of a slight shuffle up on the roof top beside of her and she sprang to life. She awoke springing to her feet only to be staring down the jaws of two large beast one was a dark grey wolf like beast and the other an enormous black bear with glowing red eyes and claws the size of kitchen knives.

"Where hell did they come from?" Shinobu asked herself shaking her head and any of the sleep that remained her eyes. 'I thought they only could transform that way on full-moon nights.' she said to herself as the Wolf dug its claws into the rooftop and lunged attempting to pounce on top of her.

In an instant Shinobu shot up to her feet, front flipped out of the way and landed sliding down the roof on her feet just out of the reach of the beast who had destroyed the roof where she laid only a moment before.

The pack of wolves that that were behind the one pulling itself out of a pile of busted up shingles and rafters then took off after her charging down the red roof of the Hinata, their claws could be heard scuffing and digging into the hardwood shingles that covered the top of the roof as Shinobu continued to slide down to the edge of the gutter, leapt to the roof adjacent to hers ran up one side then with a twisting flip she evaded one of the wolves and landed sliding down the other side, where she jumped with one leg flipping into a no-handed cartwheel landing on the roof of the abandoned annex.

The large Grey wolf launched itself from the part of the roof it had destroyed and in one jump landed directly in front of her the three other Lycan following suite and landing cutting off her escape route as they sounded her each one landing with a loud thump from the sheer stress they each placed with their landing on the hardwood floor.

"The large grey Lycan took a swipe at her with its razor sharp claws seeming to cut the air around her. She sprung back into a back handspring, brought her feet together under the jaw of one of the lycan behind her, she put the full force of her body behind the double footed mule-kick but the beast had barely moved at all, she noticed as she hit the ground performing several dodges that seemed much like break dancing moves before she faked a diving roll and snaked her way between the legs of the grey lycan in front of her springing over the hand railing and diving off of the roof towards the town.

"Damnit I cant do anything without a weapon." She growled in mid freefall

turning to the side and landing in a diving roll just barely avoiding the claws of the Werebear that lay wait for her at the bottom its swiping claws splintering large wooden post like they were nothing more than rotten toothpicks.

"There's no way ill be able to get to my weapons without getting someone killed when

She thought as she frantically jumped down the stone steps landing on one of the thick side pieces. Adjusting to the difference in terrain she ceased running down the stone knowing that if she kept this up she would faceplant about halfway down the stairs and be ready ground buger for the beast chasing her, so instead she jumped into the air landed sideways on the side of the stone steps and used the soles of her shoes to slide down the slick part of the stone, the lycan were closeting on her as they had the advantage of supernatural strength and speed.

In this state all Shinobu had to fight back with was the few evasion skills she had picked up from her training and her life in her old home world.

The lycan's were closeting as she reached the bottom of the stairs and she knew she wouldn't keep up this pace for long as good as shape as she was in she was no competition for a pack of Wolf-Lycan and a Wear-bear.

As she reached the bottom of the steps she saw the headlights of a van approaching rapidly in her direction. "This was going to be bad she thought unless she could do something about that van she wouldn't even be around long enough to be Lycan food." using all her built up momentum she launched herself off of the bottom of the side of the steps narrowly avoiding the smashing paw of the Wearbear that was close on her heels.

Soaring through the sky she managed to snagged the luggage rack of the passing van and was now perched on top of it as it speed off into town.

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"Daddy what was that thump?" A blond headed girl in the passengers seat asked an incredibly crowed and messy van.

"Oh its probably nothing Sarah." Said the man behind the wheel "We might have hit a ground hog or a bunny or something cute and furry like that." he said pretty much obliviously anything that was going on at all.

But the thumping noise continued getting louder and louder. "Are you sure its nothing daddy?" Sarah asked showing some concern as it sounded as if someone was being thrashed to death on the roof of the van.

"Oh we'll be fine, your just like your mother always worried about the Mechanical soundness of this van, why back when we built this thing...

"Wham!" suddenly the thumping sounded as if rocks were being dragged accost the top if the van and someone smashed down onto the grill and windshield mainly because the van lacked anything more than resembling a hood.

"Sarah let out an ear-piercing 11 year old girl scream and seta mashed the breaks sending whatever was on top of the van flying off onto the road in front of them, had it not been for the fact she had a death grip in the windshield wiper Shinobu would have been road kill too.

"Now who do we have here?" Seat asked looking at the girl plastered to his windshield with the same curious look he always had.

"Go, just go you moron." The blue haired girl yelled pounding on the windshield with her free hand as she could see the lycan picking itself up off of the road and reset its broken arm as if it were nothing in front of them.

"Well it appears as if we have a thrill seeker out there on the hood of our van doesn't it Sarah, so do you think we should giver her what she wants?"

Though Seta was oblivious to it Sarah could hear the pounding of something large approaching at high speed and she could see a set of demonic red eyes in her side mirror. "Just go daddy go, and shake this crazy girl off the front grill, I think she has a few friends that want to play with her coming this way and they don't look to friendly."

He then looked at the terrified girl handing onto one of the windshield wipers. "Do you think we ought to leave right now?" He asked, Shinobu just nodded her head somewhat in urgency and somewhat in fear. "Well if you two say so." The daft Archeologist replied throwing the van into a lower gear and punched the gas petal to the floor.

Its tires squealed and smoke rose from the pavement as the van nearly jumped up onto its back tires form the sheer torque before it speed off hitting and throwing the lycan that had just stood to its feet in the middle of the road and was shaking its head to regain its senses throwing it under the vehicle and causing no end of thumping as they plowed over top if it.

"My they need to fix the roads around here." Said Seta as Shinobu climbed over and began knocking on Sarah's window. "Let me in Sarah, let me in." she yelled as she slid all over the windshield with each and ever minor adjustment in steering.

"Let me in!" she yelled again pounding on the window. "What do you want crazy lady." Sara yelled back rolling down the window slightly so she could hear her better.

At this time Shinobu was able to get her hand in the window and slid off to the side hood as the windshield wiper broke off and a Lycan came sliding accost the hood of the van just missing her.

However much to her immident surprise the blond headed American girl wasn't trying to help her inside the van but much the opposite. "Let go you crazy lady I don't know why in the hell you want to get in her so bad or what those freaks that are chasseing you are but take this!" She said rolling up the window on her wrist, Shinobu gritted her teeth and then yelled out in pain as they took yet another turn and her body leveled out form the vehicle letting her hang there in something of a weightless limbo all by her wrist that was stuck in a rolled up window.

"Now Sarah what did I tell you about speaking rudely like that to people?" Seta asked as nothing at all out of the ordinary were happening. "Now even if she's that crazy, be a good girl Sarah and let her in would you."

"Sigh fine daddy." She replied rolling the window down with the sudden release of pressure on her wrist Shinobu would have went flying off into the great blue yonder had it not been for the young white girls hands catching her at the last possible second.

"Urrgh, why do you have to be so damn heavy weird girl." Sarah Grunted both hands on Shinobu's wrist and her feet braced against the door, trying to hold Shinobu's weight form the centrifugal force that threatened to launch her off into the skies around Hinata.

Well why aren't you stronger?" Shinobu snapped back trying her best with her free hand to get a hold of something and climb into the vehicle. For a while she had lost track of the creatures following her due mainly to the excitement they had experienced up till now but as she began to get a better grip on the window her senses once again began to function like they should and she seen the giant Lycan bear closing the distance between them rapidly.

it was going to get her before she could pull herself into the van when she saw the strangest sight, out of nowhere something roughly the size of a man jumped down from a rooftop and slammed into it head on running from the opposite direction just as its clawed were about to fall on her.

She watched for as long as she could as a big black mass of tumbling fur skidded along the pavement behind them, they turned a tight corner before they even finished spinning and threw her through the open window just before her legs were clipped off by the side of a building.

"Who the hell taught you to drive like that!" Shinobu yelled shaking her fist in the air at seta who had just scrapped the side of a building on her side of the van.

"Ah impressed with my driving skills, hugh well I taught myself so you need look no further for greatness." He said in that normal seta-ish kind of way.

"Uuughhh." Sarah and Shinobu groaned smacking their foreheads with their hands.

"Do you think hell ever catch on?" Shinobu asked the American girl.

"Not likely psycho lady, thought I doubt you could do a better job yourself." She remarked snidely

They were all caught up in the moment so much in fact that no one had noticed they were trying to evade the large humanoid wolf-like creatures that were chasseing them until they heard several slams on top and the side of the van followed by loud clawing noises as one leapt onto the grill and began to try and smash its way through the windshield.

"Roll up the Window roll up the window Shinobu yelled as she felt the large claws of another Lycan grasp around her anquel. Quick as greased lightning Sarah rolled the window crank and caught the creatures hand in the window just as she had done with Shinobu earlier.

Shinobu then reached into the center column and grabbed the first thing she saw which just so happened to be a dull butter knife laying in a small tub of disposable jelly. Quickly spinning around she ran this dull culinary instrument through the creatures wrist. It let out an unearthly Howl of pain, causing all the windows in the van to resonate and chatter about. So much in fact that The girls were becoming concerned that the windows might soon shatter as the piece of silver wear priced its wrist and let go of her, blood shot everywhere about the front seat and some of it even covered the inside of the windshield.

Seta began wiping the inside of the windshield with his sleeve as he was currently unable to see where he was going thanks to a half ton furry Lycan on his hood and the blood that was everywhere on the inside couldn't see his turn until it was far too late and plowed the near indestructible van through a building.

The lycan on top were thrown back and jakked up pretty badly as they continued smashing through the house in one wall and out the next.

"What he hell are you doing seta are you trying to kill us all." Shinobu yelled as the impact of smashing through the wall threw her head over heels into the back seat tossing up a cloud of fast food rappers and pieces of priceless artifacts alike.

"Calm down young lady I don't know what your talking about they are the ones that built that house in the middle of the street." He said smashing through a brick wall.

"Shinobu wiggled around in the back seat through all kinds of rare and priceless artifacts that were just laying around back there trying to get her bearing about her, needless to say that wasn't that easy while large crates of tools and ancient history sliding about the back of the van continually crashing onto her keeping her from standing.

It was then as she tried to stand her hand grabbed onto something round and hard. She gripped it tightly as she pulled it form the pile of junk on the floor. "What she pulled loose was a black handled katana in a plain black scabbard. Her eyes lit up like a little girl at Christmas and she spoke. "Mind if I borrow this for a moment seta?" She asked grabbing up the sword.

"Sure whatever suits your fancy young lady, why back when I was that age we use to..." He said with a smile swerving wildly to miss an item of little to no consequence to his van.

"The van was on two wheels when Shinobu threw open the back sliding door. the lycan that had its hand pinned in the window was thrashing about wildly trying to keep its self from dragging the road or getting caught under the tires, saw her and took a wild swipe. Shinobu grinned unsheathing the sword with one hand and with the other she grabbed onto the luggage rack.

It thrashed at her again only to taste cold steel as she opened up the other arm with her sword. Blood shot everywhere propelled backwards into the street as the wind caught it and the beast looked at her for a moment slightly fearful of the girl with the katana even through she could see its wound beginning to heal almost as fast as she had cut it, still she could still see the fear in its eyes. Then with and evil eye and one quick upward slice the beast arm was released from its window shackle.

"Its mighty clawed hand with the butter knife stuck in the wrist fell inwardly into Sarah's Lap while the beast went flying off the side and under the van, giving the side of the vehicle a brand new crimson paint job, before it was sucked under the rear wheels of the van throwing the back end into the air as well as Shinobu who was still holding onto the luggage rack up on top of the van.

"Ewww its gross, get this thing off of me." Sara exclaimed as the large disembodied hand fell through the window and into her lap and continued to claw at her before she scampered to standing in the seat and kicked it onto the floor then began stomping it.

"Calm down Sarah its nothing but your everyday average disembodied human hand." seta said holding out its hand for her to stop and then picked it up off of the floor like it was nothing. At first she didn't believe him but as he held it up by its middle finger, some blood still flowing onto the seats form the part where it was severed, though sure enough it was just a disembodied human hand cut halfway between the wrist and the elbow a large butter knife sticking through the arm just below the wrist.

"Ho... h...h...ho..w.. how the hell?" Sarah tired to say, ' it was a huge nasty hairy beast arm but now it was a human hand. 'Had she been watching too many Crazy Japanese cartoons or what, this kind of thing just didn't happen...' However she was interrupted form her thoughts by her father who was now sticking his head out of the window and yelling at the girl with the katana on the top of the van. "Everything alright up there crazy girl?" He asked as something else slammed into the van.

"Yea everything is just peachy, other than the giant bezerking humanoid wolves trying to kill me up here." She replied blocking ones claws form cutting her with the scabbard of the sword then giving it a good slice. Boom another lichen came crashing down off of the top of the van before being thrown from it and had to the ground its injuries healing almost the instant it hit the street. It rolled several times backwards in a pool of its own blood slamming its head into the pavement each time violently, before it stopped and miraculously sprang off into the night after them giving chase once more.

Shinobu shifted her stance wedging her feet under the luggage racks of the van preparing for another assault from yet another lycan that had launched itself form a nearby roof top. Its jump Launched it in a high and wide arc placing it's claw just a few inches from her its claws slicing through the front part of her shirt as it slammed into the top of the van when it landed its large bestial footprints indenting themselves on the roof of the van.

The battle became heated as Shinobu took several swipes cutting the beast but not deep enough as she moved her upper body all about trying to dodge its razor sharp claws when. "House!" Sarah yelled as seta was headed dead at yet another grouping of houses, Shinobu pulled her feet loose form the luggage rack just in time to jump into the air the momentum form the van carrying her onto the roof along with the lycan where they both hit the rooftops, Shinobu's acrobatic ability finally had a chance to shine as she hit the rooftop she stumbled into a roll before spring back to there feet into a series of handsprings and flips over various obstructions and of course evading the claws of the wolf hot on her heels before she hit the last stretch of the rooftops on all fours and took off running.

The lycan hit the root tops hard as well its large paws smashing singles and forcing rafters to bend and break und the stresses, its weight forced on the support beams, several times its massive paws would hit a weak spot and sink into the roof, but its brute strength carried it form such simple stumbling and it kept up with the incredibly acrobatic and squirrel on crack looking young woman evading it accost the rooftops both trying to catch up with the van as it plowed through wall after wall.

On the final stretch the mussels in the wolf's shoulders flexed and budged as their blood-filled tissue let loose with primal fury and both it and the girl threw them selves off of the roof. At that same moment Seta's Van launched through the final wall almost as if it had ramped off of something and was arching through the air straight for the bay out in front of Hinata Hot springs. Somehow as they were all flying through the air Shinobu managed to snag the luggage rack of the van with one hand and with a loud kick to the wolf's head swung herself into the van just as Sarah dove into the back slamming the sliding door.

The Vehicle arched out and over a large portion of the bay its trajectory and arc very reminiscent of a 1980's stunt jump before the uber invincible Seta van of doom lost momentum and plunged into the bay of Hinata followed by a Lycan who sploosed in flailing its limbs in all directions as well.

Quickly it began to sink into the water and before anyone knew it they were submerged in enough water that it was hard to see any light from the surface. "What are we going to do?" Shinobu asked somewhat freaked out. "Were down at the bottom of the bay what if we cant make it back up to the top and...

"Don't worry Thrill seeker." Said seta with an amazing confidence. "I would probably be freaking out too if I hadn't remembered that this is also a submersible." The said proudly before receiving a boot to the head from Sarah."

"That was supposed to be top secrete." Daddy she scolded.

"Oh that's right, sorry about that one Sarah, but please don't call me daddy I'm just your..."

"Ship!" yelled Sarah just in time for seta to see it and evade.

"Anyways enjoy the ride crazy lady." He said with a smile.

"I do have a name you know." Shinobu replied she had remembered seta being a little crazy but this was far worse than anything he could remember from the man. "I'm Shinobu." she continued.

"Shinobu... now where have I heard that name before?" she asked talking to himself for a moment before. "Aahh you live at the Hinata dorms right, you've really grown up since the last time I seen you, and you seem to be quite the dare devil. What a far cry from the timid little Shinobu I use to know.

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Kentaro Sakata dragged his body on his hands and knees through town and up the stairs to the Hinata teahouse where he was finally able to stand and make an audible sound.

"Mutsumi hearing this rushed out to the front door just in time to catch the bloody Kentaro as he fell limply into her arms. She gasped at the sight of the trail of blood he had left behind him, apparently he had dragged himself here from accost town, and the blood that was beginning to get on her and soak into her dress as well but she paid it no mind, instead speaking to him to see if she could figure out what had just happened.

"Good god, what the hell happened to you!?!" She exclaimed carrying him inside and placing him up on one of the tables.

"You don't want to know." He groaned trying his best not to twitch in pain as Mutsumi began to remove his clothing, though he wasn't doing a very good job of it as he continued to writhe around on the table.

"Your tore up, you look like you fell in a wood chipper!" She exclaimed as she quickly rolled up her sleeves and tore the shirt form his body. His torso was littered with cuts and scrapes and even has several pieces of wood imbedded in his skin but it was the severe gashes along the side of his neck and shoulder, still pumping out blood that really concerned her.

"What did this to you?" She again asked as she near frantically tore her skirt to make dressings for his wounds.

"Don't worry about it." He grumbled his eyes closeting and his body going limp arms and legs slamming onto the table with a loud thud.

Although Mutsumi was a bit of A ditz she knew enough about medicine to know that if a person went unchoinchis like this from a loss of blood there was a good chance that they would die simply form the lack of the will to live. This reminded her of the time that Keitaro had been crushed by that giant onion on top of the main hall of Tokyo U, in one way she knew he would be alight because he always was, but in another, a deep worry and anxiety came to her unexpectedly, she knew things would be alright but then again would they?

"Common Kentaro stay with me." She started to yell opening his eyes with her fingers, as the light hit them his pupil's dilated but only weakly. He was still alive however his vital signs were beginning to fade. Mutsumi wasn't use to this sort of thing and the loss of a friend especially one so close to her would be devastating.

"Common Kentaro, its Mutsumi you got to wake up, you have to stay with me now," There was no response. "Common Kentaro don't die not her not now not like this," there was a long pause as she held the bloody gause made from her skirt against the major wounds on his shoulder.

It was then that a small tear escaped her eye and she yelled. "You cant die!" following suite more tears began to form in her eyes as she continued to try and bring him out of it. "Kentaro you cant die, not on me not on my watch you have so much to do so many things to see, you need to graduate from Tokyo U, and we haven't even..."

The turtle lady shook her head the tears now flowing freely down her face, she had to Save him she had to , she didn't know why but it was a burning desire within her not to let this man die. Possibly some long dormant love she held for this man, or maybe it was just her motherly intuition seeking to protect and nurture that which she could but whatever it was, it had been awakened and she could not let this man die.

Quickly she bandaged his wounds up hopefully sealing what little blood he still had left within his body and she listened and felt for his breath holding some of her hair in front of his mouth and nose hoping to see the faint movement of air move it.

Fortunately this worked and she could see an ever so gentle breath move a few strands of her dark brown hair it its tiny wake. After confirming this she placed her ear to the side of his chest and began to listen to the heartbeat. It was faint but it was still beating, She sighed a sigh of relief knowing that the young man was alive yes, though deep inside she knew that he was far from being out of trouble just yet.

"But she had done everything that she could, except for what he heard her mothers voice ring in her head, "Pray" and that she did into the night her head resting on Kentaros bloody chest, listening to the sound of his heart beat.

**Hopefully this chapter isn't to over the top this early on, anyways I hope you all enjoyed the action and are looking foreword to the next chapter.**

**Oh yea if anyone has any question as to how the Lycan look in this universe, reger to the movie VanHelsing, as the Lycan in that Movie look most silimar to the ones I have invisioned.**

**Icescythe**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Septembers first**

Mutsumi Otohime lay face down on a table in the Hinata teahouse sleeping soundly. It was near dawn and the sky was illuminated just the slightest amount as the sun threatened to rise from up the ocean, though in this thick forested region of the mountains the Café was located in little light had reached it as of yet.

"Hey are you alright?" A voice asked walking up on her. The turtle lady stirred a little grumbling some inaudible words and smacking the table a few times with her hands. "Hey Mutsumi." The voice said this time closer as he reached out and put his hand on her shoulder. "Is everything ok?"

"I don't want to go to school today I want to, play hide and go seek momma." she grumbled. Swinging her arms around again. "Yea I think Narusegua is hot, now go away we can play house later, right now I have to fight off the vampires."

"Its me Mutsumi, Kentaro." the voice said as he placed his hands on her shoulders shaking her ever so gently to get her to stir. At first there was no response but as he continued the heavy spell of sleep that Mutsumi was under began to fade and after a few moments of coaxing she finally stirred.

"Hugh," she said finally wakening imminently she began rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "Kentaro what are you doing up and about I thought you were all beat down last night, you came in here looking like you went through a meat grinder headfirst." She mumbled with a slight chuckle shaking her head and finally standing up.

"I think your eyes were playing tricks on you, my dear." He said imminently pulling off his shirt and throwing it onto the table, making sure to flex his lean mussels as he did it.

It took her a minute for her eyes to focus but when they did Mutsumi looked at him in awe, she couldn't believe her eyes last night she had thought he was going to die he was hacked and cut up so badly. From what she could remember she had spent most of the night tending to his wounds and begging him to stay with her and continue to live but this morning it as if nothing more than a little kitty cat had gotten a hold of him and slid down his chest and not the bear mauling she remembered him having the night before. Still this morning although he had a few bruises and a couple of decent cuts up next to his neck and right shoulder still it was nothing compared to what Mutsumi thought it was the night before. "How?" She asked.

"You were really tired last night from running the teahouse and getting ready for school to start again, In the state of fatigue you were in last night your senses could have been playing tricks on you. And please tell me you weren't up all-night reading the history of Transylvania again, you know what I think about those intangibles. I know how they can mess with your mind sometimes."

"Only the first half of the night." she said with a slight smile, still under the influence of her powerful sleep drive, Mutsumi stumbled to her feet and walked out to the front stairs of the Teahouse looking for the trail of blood she could have sworn she saw the night before, but in the dim light of the early dawn she could make out nothing, it was almost as if she had dreamed the whole thing except for the several small wounds on Kentaros upper chest and neck as no other evidence of the horrors of the previous night remained.

"Was I really as hysterical last night as I remember being?" She asked sheepishly and somewhat embarrassed turning to Kentaro now noticing how torn and tattered her clothes were.

"Ah probably not." He replied. "Haruka use to tell me about the nightmares you have sometimes and all of the sleepwalking, and as deep as you sleep, it wouldn't have surprised me if you weren't half dreaming, when I stumbled in last night, you know blood has a tendency to make wounds look much worse than they are."

"Well ok, you seem to be fine this morning, how I don't know but I'm glad, sorry I made such a fuss last night and all." Mutsumi replied.

"Oh you were no problem at all." Said Kentaro. "You have no idea how much you helped me out last night, Thank you Mutsumi." He said putting his hand gently on her face before slowly brushing one side of her bangs form her face. The two stood there in the empty restaurant for a while eyes locked Mutsumi held her hands together in her lap, while Kentaro's hand slowly stroked the side of her head. It was then that he spoke. "I owe you a lot." He said with a with a bow and something else Kentaro was usually lacking Humility.

"I'm just glad your better now." she said with a big smile, thought silently on the inside missing his warm touch against the side of her head, and the possible romance that it suggested.

"So anyways I'm going to go and catch some sleep if that's alright with you, had a rough night last night." He said.

"No worries you can have the day off you look like you need it." Mutsumi replied. "On one condition." She added.

"And what might that be?" Asked Kentaro calmly turning around.

"What happened to you last night?" Asked the Dark headed young woman standing at the door a thick mist beginning to shroud around her.

"Bar fight." Said Kentaro. "I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, that's all. Got caught between a couple of large biker groups down from Kyoto and Tokyo"

"Fu fu fu out at night where you shouldn't be, sounds just like you. Well take care of yourself Kentaro, I don't want to have to patch your wounds again." She said throwing him his shirt and watching him walk out of the door putting it on as he exited.

"You too Mutsumi, and thanks again for what you did last night your a real lifesaver you know that." Kentaro said with a smile and a wink before he disappeared into the dawning fog around the Hinata.

"Oh yea I thought you would like to know that you aren't anemic anymore." His voice echoed through the foggy hills about the Hinata making his position impossible to determine form the sound of his voice alone.

Mutsumi smiled Watching him vanish into the mist. "Kentaro was an good guy she thought, just took a while to get to know him that was all.' She thought as she lostned to his gentle foot falls through the mist.

As soon as he was out of earshot and his footsteps subsided Mutsumi yawned stretching out her arms, and walked back into the teahouse and proceeded to get ready and prepare for yet another day of taking care of this place.

"It was when she stripped off her tattered dress and went to pull in her t-shirt that she noticed a slight pain on her left wrist.

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"Heave!" Seta's voice commanded as the sound of rattling chains and water dripping echoed through the fog. "Put some back into it!" He grunted as he held onto one end of a thick and rusty anchor chain knee-deep out in the water."

"I'm giving it all I got, I'm a girl for crying out loud!" Shinobu replied somewhat angrily as she was out there with him tugging another chain of similar size a rustiness.

"That's no excuse why when Haruka was your age…" Seta started to say but he could tell from the veins beginning to pop out in Shinobu's forehead that she wasn't about to have any of it, so he continued with the Heave bit.

As the sun slowly peeked its warm life giving face up over the edge of the sea, one could see that the chains were attached to either side of the Bumper of Seta's van as they attempted to drag it from the sea.

"Some submarine this thing was." Growled Shinobu as she pulled at the chain.

"You didn't expect me to see that wrecked ship down there did you?" asked seta Innocently I mean its not like we can really float in the thing just drive along the bottom."

"Yea leave it to this piece of junk to break down like 20 meters off shore." Said Sarah as she rolled down the window of the van and spoke with Seta and Shinobu.

"Just steer Sarah, ill be concerned with the mechanical workings of this Automobile." Said seta as he and Shinobu steadily made ground pulling it from the sea.

"You know my mom is the one that built this thing right?" Sarah stated as much as she asked Shinobu.

"Did she?" asked Shinobu. "I don't know weather to Kill her or kiss her." said Shinobu with a chuckle. "So if she built this thing then she can fix it cant she?"

Suddenly Sarah's usually if nothing else mischievous smile instantly shifted and she got really quite her gaze simply shifting to the steering wheel of the van."

After a few moments of aquward silence, they had managed to bull the Van up into the boat levy and put it in park so that seta could get it running again.

"Did I say something?" Shinobu asked seta still panting form the exercise they got form dragging the van out of the harbor as they dug around in the back for some tools."

"Sara's mom died a few years back." said Seta for once somberly. "it upsets her if you talk about her, she misses her mom that's all. Hell I do too now hand me that sledgehammer so I can get this water out of this tub." He said back to his usual demeanor.

Shinobu threw him a sledgehammer from the huge collection of tools seta kept stashed under the back seat of the van. Seta grabbed it out of the air Kicked the grill on the front of van, the hood popped open and he gave the engine a loud smack with the sledgehammer. The engine made a loud coughing nose, silencing once more before spitting out a vast amount of saltwater and fish.

"Anyone up for breakfast?" he asked picking up one of the fish a smile on his face.

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After a few more good poundings and with the sledgehammer and a quick breakfast of fish cooked on a spit overtop of an engine Manifold, the seta mobile and the girls were once again on the road this time headed for the Hinata teahouse.

"I still don't get why that big hairy arm turned into, just a regular human hand when you severed it." Sarah said crawling form the wreckage of the van as it literally rolled up onto its side in front of the Hinata tea house.

"Yea got me on that one too." Said Shinobu as she looked at the arm and kicking out of one of the windows almost as if she were finally getting use to the insanity of seta's driving. "There was nothing per say special about it, I mean other than the butter knife jammed through the wrist and the fact it was a severed limb. Still when it had been attached to the beast it was a good two if not three times larger and covered in coarse hair as thick as fur. Know anything about this phenomenon Seta?" Shinobu asked tossing the arm to the archeologist.

Blood running down the forehead of the archeologist he still managed to catch the arm and give it a quick once over tipping his glasses once in order to get a better look. After a moment in deep thought and musing with his free hand resting on his chin he tossed the arm back to the blue haired girl. "There's not much I can make of it other than you might want to get rid of if it that is if you don't want people like the police, and other law enforcement snooping around." He said as if it were nothing at all to be concerned about.

"Thanks seta I wouldn't have guessed that one on my own." Shinobu replied sarcastically smacking herself in the head with the disembodied hand. "Anyways I'm out of here, I'm going to head back up to the apartments as I think I have had enough excitement for one night."

"Alright, take care of yourself thrill seeker, and if I find anything out about those things that attacked us last night ill be sure and let you know first thing." He replied with a wave as Shinobu seemingly drug herself up the stairs to the Hinata.

When she was gone Seta turned to his surrogate daughter and spoke. "Spunky young girl thought I cannot help but as to think we have met before, same name same color hair even the same looking face if you look closely enough. Sigh, maybe I've just been working to hard as of late." he said dismissing it.

"What did you say daddy?" asked Sarah who had been looking at her father figure as he was muttering something to himself incoherently.

"Oh its nothing Sarah." he replied with a smile, his blood still thick on his forehead.

"Hey Haruka, anybody home?" Seta yelled turning his train of thought on a dime and sticking his hand in the window of his rolled over van and giving the horn a couple of beeps.

A moment later Mutsumi emerged wearing a pair of kaki shorts, an apron for the Cafe and a maroon turtleneck. "Can I help you?" She asked wearing a smile like always

"Hi My name is Noriyasu Seta, Is Haruka in? there's something I need to speak with her about." The archeologist said scratching his head with one hand like a nervous habit or something.

"Oh my, no, I'm sorry Mr. Noriyasu, Haruka is out." Mutsumi replied.

"She still runs the place right? Any idea of when shell be back?" he asked a slight scow beginning to from on his normally relaxed face

"Nope not at all She was supposed to be back two weeks ago, But as you can tell she never arrived. You sound rather urgent Mr. Noriyasu, what might it be that way I can take a message for you."

"Two weeks." Seta said. "that's a long time to be late, and Haruka isn't normally one to run off and get lost, any idea of where she went?"

"Not really." Said Mutsumi. Though she did say something about Hokkaido being Nice this time of year, of course that was the month before last." Mutsumi said followed by her normal ai ai ai. There was a brief silence as the two stared at each other in thought, one a somewhat daft but extremely successful Archeologist the other a Tokyo U History major with a similar oblivious to just about anything short of life and death and even then it's still in question personality. It was about that time that Sarah had walked into view from behind the wrecked van and, Mutsumi clapped her hands in glee.

"I know who you are now." she said excitedly looking at seta. "Your the guy that always takes care of the Blond headed American girl she's so cute, and sometimes Haruka takes care of her if things get to dangerous for her to tag along right?"

"That's right it's me." Seta replied with a slight chuckle. "And you Must be that Otohime girl, the lady with the crazy flying turtles right, how's the whole Tokyo U scene going for you? I'm assuming you got in with Keitaro and Naru"

"Yup that's me alright, Tokyo U is really something but for the last 3 months its been closed, so right now I'm Haruka's substitute, By the way would you like to try a cup of My new Watermelon tea?" she asked.

"Sure why not." Seta replied "Mind if we come in?"

"Oh please do," The turtle lady replied excitedly. "After all I do have to make sales so Haruka will let me keep my job here when she gets back." Mutsumi replied with a sweet smile.

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"So what your saying Mutsumi is that, a little over a month ago Haruka took of on a Vacation, to see Japan and some old friends then she just up and left, telling you to run the Cafe until she returned"

"Pretty much, Though I did get a phone call form her a couple of weeks ago, she said that she was coming back the next day, and to make sure everything in the restaurant was in order."

"That's odd, doesn't sound much like her." Said seta. "You mentioned something about Hokkaido earlier what did you mean by that?"

"Well when we worked here together she would sometimes talk about an old friend of hers that had been an inspiration in her life but had died much to prematurely, she said they were buried in Hokkaido and when she got the time she was going to visit the grave site."

"Hum..." Said Seta as he put the stubble of his chin against the palm of his hand and began to stair off in the distance as he thought. He sat thee for a while the look in his eyes was almost like he was trying to burn a hole in the wall with his gaze before he abruptly stood and spoke. "Well Hokkaido it is then." he said jumping up and grabbing his things before he walked out the door.

"So were going to Hokkaido, daddy? Sarah enthusiastically asked.

"I'm afraid not Sarah." he replied crouching down and looking her in the eye. "I don't think I cant take you with me this time." He said bending over and ruffling up the hair on the top of her head.

"But I want to go with you Daddy." Sarah yelled latching onto Seta's leg.

"I'm think that this might be a little to dangerous for you. Miss Otohime, I hate to keep asking favors of you but do you think you could Look after Sarah for me for a little while until I can return, hopefully with Haruka?"

"Sure." Said Mutsumi without stopping to think one bit. "I always have wanted to play momma. Yes that would be just fine Professor, Noriyasu.

"Please its just Seta." He said to the dark headed girl with a smile.

"Ok Seta it would be great to take care of your daughter for a while." She with a smile, tama-chan on her shoulder interjecting in a Muah of her own.

"I'm no little kid if that's what you think?" Sarah nearly yelled as Seta detached the rabid blond girl form his leg and then with one huge heave flipped the van back onto its wheels.

"See ya." He said wavering as he cranked up the van and took the shortest route back onto the road, the large stone stairs in front of the Hinata Inn.

"Try and come back in one piece this time daddy." Sarah whispered as Mutsumi put her hand on the girls shoulder, as the tow watched and listened to the van rattle and bang its way down the steps.

"I'm sure he'll come back in a month or two." Mutsumi said abysmally unaware how long that was to a little girl of Sarah's age. It was about that time that Sarah noticed the hand on her shoulder and Mutsumi's wounded wrist."

"What happened to your wrist ditz?" Sarah asked.

"Oh my that?" Mutsumi replied surprised. "Oh I'm really not sure, I must have cut myself with a knife or something in the kitchen last night when I was washing dishes or something. "it still beads a little so might want to keep away from that hand for a while." She said squeezing it slightly to try and bandage it causing a small drop of blood form on it.

'Jeeze how long do I have to live with the losers twin sister anyway.' thought The blonde headed American girl. "This is going to be a long month." She groaned following Mutsumi and the flying Tama-chan through the curtain into the Hinata teahouse.

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_Meanwhile..._

Shinobu who had gone up to the apartments shortly before Mutsumi had offered the tea was met at the door by a rather serious looking swords woman, dressed in her red hamaka and White Kimono top, she was carrying a small duffel bag with a black silk sword case stuffed inside of it and held a piece of parchment in one of her hands.

Before Shinobu could even open her mouth Motoko Walked past her and hurried down the stone stairs without a word. The kendo girl had a look in her eye that Shinobu had rarely seen before one of both dread and a look of fire coupled with sheer determination almost as if she were going to face off against some ancient demon that was once on of her ancestor or something equally grim and intense.

"That was strange." Shinobu thought 'She wouldn't take her sword just anywhere, and that duffel sure didn't look like she was taking it to school, I wonder where she's going. Anyways this disembodied hand ew," she shuttered as she held it out for a moment and then threw it into the bag she was carrying under her arm.

It was a Red silk sword case similar to the one Motoko was carrying and inside she carried the sword from the night before, she remembered that morning when Seta had given it to her as a present.

_I can't take this its a priceless artifact." Shinobu protested holding out the sword and case as seta slowly cooked some fish over the engine manifold._

"_Nonsense girl, you seemed to handle it well last night and with all of the strange gang-related activity that went on yesterday, its my duty to provide you with the means to protect yourself, plus she seems to like you." He said with a smile slowly turning the fish to make sure that they cooked right._

_"But what about the University I'm sure that they sponsored the expedition and if something like this comes up missing..." She would have said more but before she could finish The archeologist cut her off._

_"Don't worry about it, Thrill seeker, just conceder it a gift and get over it, besides its part of a set of seven we only have two of at the moment and hasn't even been inventoried yet, her name is Ryujin, hopefully it will take care of you for the time being, and as you seem so adverse to the idea of keeping it when you no longer need her I will return and take it to the university. That sounds like a fair deal to me so what do you say Shinobu?" Asked Seta in a rather insistent tone that Shinobu found rather difficult if mot impossible to resist._

_"Don't you mean, Hopefully I'll take care of it?" Shinobu asked rather quizzically obviously accepting the offer._

_"No, I meant exactly what I said, hopefully she'll, will take care of you and I can retrieve it when you no longer need it, alright._

_"Alright..." Shinobu replied somewhat skeptically, as she unsheathed the sword and looked at its blade._

She did the same as she crossed the threshold of the Hinata Apartments, slowly pulling the sword and sheath out of its red silk case and then the sword from its sheath. It was light now, and in here it wasn't the least bit foggy so for the first time Shinobu got a good look at her new sword, the Ryujin.

It was no ordinary sword she knew that much, as soon as she had unsheathed it, the tang was firm and solid covered in sharks skin and rapped quite well, the handle seemed to fit her hand as she held at her side and gave it a couple of strikes, it fit so well in fact, down to the weight and the swinging arc that it felt almost as if this sword had been specifically made for her by some master sword smith who had set it aside for centuries all the while it was awaiting her its perfect master. 'Ah that's nonsense I must be imagining things, I have been through a lot of things but that's a little farfetched even for me' She thought eyeing the flawless piece of steel and what she just now noticed at the very back a micro-serrated blade. "how could such a thing be possible?" she wondered holding up the blade and studying it, even with today's technology it was still impossible to make a katana blade worth a damn and give it a microserreated edge much less 400 hundred years ago. She continued to observe it, thought she didn't know a lot about swords but she was no fool and trained as something of a swordswoman herself, Shinobu was able to tell the real deal from the trash imitations and one thing was for sure as well made as this sword was it was NO imitation.

"Well best not to Question a good thing too much." She said to herself as she resheathed the sword shortly after she cut her finger just attempting to test its sharpness and some blood spilled onto the floor.

It was about then that she heard the loudest ear piercing scream she could remember as of late, and it was followed by one name.

"KEITAROOOO!!!

Directly after a loud thump echoed through her skull and everything faded to black.

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'Sigh what a wonderful morning' Naru sighed to herself as she stirred form her futon slowly yawning and stretching the tense muscles through her arms and back as she slowly opened her big brown eyes, taking in the blurry scenery along with a big deep breath.

"It had been a long time since she remembered when the mornings felt this good, the air had a magical feeling hanging in it. It wasn't to hot and muggy like in the summer she had left behind yesterday, nore was it bone chillingly cold like in those winter mornings that were soon coming. Though a certain chill hung in the air, it wasn't a bad make you sick kind of chill, but more of a I'm just tap you on the shoulder letting you know I'm here like an old friend kind of chill.

"Damn I love September." She said to herself with another relieved sigh as she sat up in bed grabbed her glasses and took a couple of deep gulps from her glass of water.

"well I guess I had better wake up Keitaro, so he can get use to getting up for his early classes later on this month cant let that fool developed any bad habits just yet since this will be his first official Semester at Tokyo U and all." she mumbled to herself, standing up and groggily walking over to the hole in her floor, passing her yawning with her hand as she went.

It wasn't until she crouched down and was ready to lift the thin board covering the hole between her and the managers rooms when she swore she could have heard something. She bent down putting her head close to the floor so she could listen.

At first it seemed as if it were nothing but someone rolling around on a rickety old floor in some old futon mumbling in their sleep. 'I'm just paranoid, there is no possible way a looser like that could.. well like I said No way." She told herself with a nervous chuckle but as she continued leaning further down and listening ever harder she swore she could have heard a moaning and..." "that's it!" she told her self spring to her feet and tearing the board form its place in her floor.

She was looking down on Keitaro futon, his hair stuck out of the covers like some shaggy brown mop residing on his white pillow, and his body was just a big lump underneath the covers.

Naru Breathed a sigh of relief as she looked down on her Would be lover, he was actually an ok guy most of the time, that is if he could keep his mouth shut and didn't move around too much as to bump into anyone and do any number of mutually embarrassing things to someone inadvertently. And even so there wasn't any way in hell that he would chea..."

About that time she heard the groaning of another voice in the room, it was female and not her own. She watched in anticipation as his covers began to wiggle ever so subtly before they became more apparent and the lump that she thought was his body divided. Suddenly a silver haired Vixen's head popped out from under the covers and rapped her arms around Keitaro's neck.

"KEITARO!!!" Naru yelled after a scream of disbelief the bellowing of her voice enough to wake the entire dorm if not the entire town of Hinata hot springs.

"Hugh what where who." Keitaro eyes burst open he was staring at Naru through the hole in his ceiling but as his body continued the wakening process he also noticed something else, something warm and soft laying next to him. "That was odd he thought if Naru is up there in her PJ's then what is this warm soft thing I'm by bed?'

He readied himself to jump to his feet and apologize profusely when the side of his head fell and he was suddenly looking his warm soft mystery companion in the eye.

"Kitsune what the hell are you doing here?" he exclaimed jumping to his feet in a flash Almost crying. "I'm sorry Naru, I'm sorry!" it was then that the chill in the air caught his attention and because of a slight draft he looked down to discover he was...

"About that time Naru's foot met his face and mashed him into the floor, rickety old boards bending and beginning to break under the force of the kick as she jumped through the hole in his ceiling. There was a board shattering quake and the books that were knocked form their shelves landed on Keitaro covering his apparent nakedness.

Naru stared at him for a moment feeling betrayed and in shock though it wasn't until Kitsune had sat up and crawled out of bed reveling that she too was as naked as the day she was born that Naru truly Snapped.

Oddly enough it wasn't the kind of snap someone has when they just cant take it anymore and bezerk killing everyone and everything they see, nor was it the kind of break where a person just goes comatose, and stands there like a zombie with their mouth hanging open drooling every which where. No it went more like this. In an instant the look of rage and anger on Naru face, was wiped clean and replaced with a look as if someone had just put a knife in her spleen from behind, her Big brown eyes welled up with tears and her usual smile that always graced her face even when she was in the rage of beating Keitaro down disappeared. It was abruptly replaced with a gaping jaw and a look of sheer horror as if her world had been shattered and was crumbling down all around her, threatening to crush her insignificant existence. It was then that she buried her face in her hands, and ran from the room crying like she never had done before in her life. For once in her life she had finally lost to the Mitsune, "But why here and why now?" she thought, why did it have to be this time.

"Shit, Naru its not what it looks like!" Keitaro yelled after her as he stood to his feet once more. 'Is it?' he began to ask himself as he looked at the Naked Mitsune Kono before him.

Suddenly the concreteness in his mind of his love for Naru was shattered like a rose dipped in Liquid nitrogen then cast to the floor, it was once a beautiful thing but he had shunned it allowing it to freeze before casting aside without so much as a second thought, where on impact with the hard ground it fragmented into innumerable pieces never to be put back together again. Of course he could have been a little over dramatic with that thought but one thing was for sure this was not the way Keitaro had wanted things, and he caught a glimpse of what was to his left.

Kitsune was smiling as she waltzed up to him throwing her hips with each step and then slung her arms around his neck, in an instant her momentum carried her foreword pressing their bodies against one another. In this chill her warm soft figure was so welcoming and for a moment he lost himself his hands slowly sliding off the book he had covered himself with. He was ready to lift her up by the haunches and thrust her up against the wall before back onto the futon when...

When his disillusioned heard Naru crying and her tear droplets hitting the floor above him much like a light rain. It was then that he snapped out of it and promptly rid himself of both the cute no make that sexy girl and the book, in favor of a pair of jeans and a random shirt he grabbed off of the floor, trying to stumble into them as he ran out into the hallway half dressed, throwing on a shirt trying to catch Naru before she did anything rash.

After stumbling down the stairs and falling over the railing and out onto the lobby floor, Keitaro managed to slide to his feet and catch Naru just as she had slid open the door.

"Naru Wait don't go!" He yelled catching her by the wrist just as he front foot hit the first step out of the door. She turned around tears flooding her eyes and marring her face, she stopped crying for only a moment and gave him a cold painful, icy glare as if he had just ran over her heart with a freight train, scraped up the pieces off to the tracks, dunked them in a bucked to salt and then fed the salted remains to a school of rabid piranha fish.

"She turned around again to run when Keitaro opened his mouth. "Naru I love you!" He shouted, it echoed through the mountains above the Dorm but it echoed more though Naru head as for a moment she froze in his iron-clad grasp, but instead of locking up and staying there like she had the few times he had said that to her before she jerked her arm loose from his grip and yelled back her reply as she ran off without looking back and without another word.

"Get away from me, I see your already happy with someone else! Now crawl back to your fox and fuck her brains out you..." Her tears falling to the stone steps in front of the dorm like rain as she ran from him.

The image of her running off away form him was permanently seared into Keitaros brain. Had he had his senses about him he would have chased off after her but as things were he just stood there frozen in shock of what had just happened, and most of all he was shocked and somewhat scared that Naru hadn't hit him like she always had when this sort of thing would happen, not that this thing had ever really happened, at least not like it did this morning.

**End chapter 6. So that's pretty rough, What will happen to Keitaro and Naru? What about Kitsune dose she really love him or was she just using the poor Urishima for sex or is it something deeper? what about Haruka where did she get off to? and dose anybody still care about the 8 foot Lycan rampaging around Hinata Hot springs after all that drama?**

**Anyways I figured it would be a good break in the action and a good way to further the plot after the last one, well any takers on what happens next or any suggestions those are always welcome as well.**

**Till next time, Latar**

**Icescythe**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Storm**

As Naru tore herself free of Keitaros grasp and bolted down the stairs of the Hinata Inn, Keitaro's heart was dealt a serious blow, and with the lack of the beating he received, he couldn't help but wonder if this time he had really screwed up. Not just a simple mess up like all of those other times when he had accidentally fallen asleep on the couch with one of the other girls, or when he had pulled Naru's shirt down when he had nearly fallen of the balcony at the hotel they were staying at last summer. No this time was different He had slept with another woman, not that he had ever slept with Naru before in that sense but it was coming he could just feel it one of these days she would have let her stubborn streak go and finally given into her slowly growing love for him.

But now he wasn't sure if he could ever undo the damage of such a thing, sure it was Kitsune and yea she was probably drunk when she crawled into bed with him but the sudden bombardment of memories of the past night that flooded his brain, he became fully aware that this was no accident, nore was it completely one sided.

"Naru!!" he tired to yell after her reaching out with his right hand almost clawing at the air in front of him like he was trying to pull her back, but nothing came out of his mouth save a horse whisper, as his strength to pursue her was gone.

As his feet regained the strength to pursue her, his mind and sight became blurred and shifted to the events of leading up to this moment in the wee hours of the morning. Keitaro remembered the night before. It was four or five in the morning when he was awakened form his calm peaceful sleep by the sounds of thunder echoing through the skied and, that of an ominous dream that he had been caught up in. Not awake not asleep The apartment manager stumbled into the kitchen looking for something to eat and that's when he saw her.

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_She was standing there behind him as he opened the refrigerator door. As the dim light of the kitchen appliance shone through the room he turned around to see the ever so busty Kitsune Kono standing there in front of him, she was wearing a pair of tattered kaki shorts and a table cloth turned into a makeshift top. _

_"Kitsune Where have you been?" he asked her sniffing the air to see if he could smell any alcohol. There was none that he detected but still he intended to take whatever she said with a preferable grain of salt as this sort of thing happened to there on a usual basis. "Are you sure your alright, do you need anything?" asked Keitaro slowly backing up from the foxes not so subtle advances._

_"Just you suggar." she replied with a big smile and a deep sighing breath, calmly she approached him and threw her arms around his neck, bringing their faces nearly to touching. "So how's about it Keitaro." she said in a bedroom tone as she began to nuzzle on his neck sweetly before she began to lightly kiss it._

_"At first the sensation was enrapturing, for Keitaro as he had never had anyone this close kissing him like this before but then it became all to apparent that this was his girlfriends best friend and she was... 'Wait a minute." he took several sniffs of the air around him, noticing it was devoid of alcohol, something was most definitely not right, he had to find it in himself to break free some way he owed it To Naru! Didn't he? Keitaro began to find himself questioning his true motivations for waiting on the girl that always sent him barreling off into the skies like an ejected fighter jet polite whenever he gave her just the tiniest reason to do so. _

_So long had he waited for her to return the unending affection and fanatical loyalty to this his new promised girl, but it was always the same thing she was always unwilling to make a commitment, and at what was now almost three years since they had met she still showed no sighs of affection beyond the night they met as strangers in the Hinata hot springs. "Honor and loyalty be damned, if only for one night." he thought. Before psychologically punching in his own face. "I cant do that not after all we have been through, I just cant!" By now his thoughts were scattered and frantic, though taking a deep breath he pulled himself together as best he could._

_"I just cant Goddamnit!' He yelled Hitting the refrigerator with his palm. An echo of sound was sent through the building and resonated through the floors of the place as the large double door stainless steel fridge was knocked back into the wall behind it and rocked back and forth on its wheels threatening to tip over._

_The silver haired fox that was now gently nibbling on his Neck suddenly stopped what she was doing and looked him in the eye for once opening her own. "it's alright Keitaro," She whispered to him as a lover. "Naru doesn't have to know anything about this little romp of ours." Her eyes opened and met his. _

_In all of his life Keitaro had never once seen such a longing stair aimed in is direction, though he had wanted it for as long as he could remember, her brown eyes shinning as his sole ray of hope to find that love and acceptance he so desperately needed. He felt his nerves calm and his determination wane as he slowly began to return the loving gaze and then he gave into the beast inside of him. "Promise girl be damned." He thought as he grabbed up the silver haired fox lifting her up off of her feet by the Haunches and slammed her back first into the refrigerator planting a long passionate kiss upon her lips._

_From there on it seemed as if it were a dream, both one of complete essay and one of pure torture both melding onto one emotion. It was if her were there a vague faceless figure watching this thing unfold as they thrashed all about the kitchen clothes, and anything that wasn't nailed down flying as they began to climb the stairs to their rooms and that's when the biting started. At first it was playful and unleashed Unimaginable pleasure upon the young Urishima's body but as they brutally slammed onto Keitaros futon things began more fierce, and animalistic, until the pain form one such bites awoke his Honorable side. _

_He wanted to bail out, part of him wanted to stop, to somehow try and redeem his honor in his own eyes so that he would not betray his beloved but his body continued on, caught up in both the pleasure and the pain of the night almost as if it were a drug feeding the beast within leading him on into a night of unimaginable lust. He couldn't stop himself he was in to deep his body had taken the wheel from him much as a car will throw its driver when a tire blows out, sending them flying off in a direction at an uncontainable pace helpless only able to watch in fear as they barrel towards their fate._

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"God damnit Naru!" Keitaro angrily growled slamming his empty glass on the bar. "Three years damnit, three years living under the same roof two years chasseing our dreams of getting into Tokyo U together and this is how you repay me!?"

The sounds of rolling thunder echoing through the mountains over top of the city of Hinata, and the bright flashes of light that caused them awoke Keitaro form his wandering day dream only for him to find himself sitting at a bar with a drink in hand growling and angrily motioning for the bartender to fill his glass.

"Where am I?" he asked her seeming unaware of where his feet had carried him while he was caught up in his daydream of last night.

"If you don't know where your at you've had quite a bit already son." The lady behind the counter said as she tidied up the various bottles and glasses behind the bar.

"Dose it look like I care?" Keitaro Stated more than asked. "Now do your job and get me another long island." He mumbled obviously drunk.

"Alright have it your way but you had better not get hit by the train on the way out." She said in a motherly tone as she picked up four liquor bottles at once and poured his drink finishing it off with just a splash of coke.

She slammed the large icy drink in front of him a moment or so later resting her elbows on the bar. "She must have been a hell of a woman to make you drink like this." She said rather bluntly.

"You have no idea woman." Keitaro replied pulling the straw out of his drink before he took a couple of big gulps of the mixed drink.

"I spent two and a half almost three years with her, all kinds of crazy stuff happened everything from flying turtles to wars with foreign countries and then, and then." He rested his hand on his drink and pointed at her with his left index finger taking a drunken swallow trying to holdback the puke reflex form all of the alcohol he had been drinking.

"And then, just as I'm getting ready to pop the question to her and ask her to marry me I go and sleep with her best friend. He paused taking another huge swig of his drink before hanging his head in some sort of drunken shame.

"The thing that really bothers me is, what am I going to do now I mean we did everything together, and I just up and throw her out the window like some old used up piece of garbage."

"Wow some story." The lady behind the bar stated pulling out a rag from underneath of the bar and beginning to wipe it." "I haven't heard a story that crazy since I use to watch soaps. Your woman seems to be a lot of things, do you hate her for it?"

"Sigh, why should I?" Keitaro asked.

"Well why shouldn't you? it seems as if she has taken everything from you." She replied.

"Well at least she isn't after me anymore and even if she got Naru and Tokyo U and all of that shit I spent a life time chasseing after, it doesn't matter its just life, I should have know and accepted that a girl like that was always just beyond a looser like myself's reach." He said in a rather dead tone.

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_Elsewhere in the city of Hinata..._

Naru Narsegua had spent the last several hours just wondering thought town aimlessly, thee wasn't much else she could think about other than what she had seen first thing this morning when she had lifted the paper thin board that separated her and Keitaros rooms. "The mental image of Keitaro and Kitsume together, naked in his futon just beneath her own room, had been eternally burned into the backs of her retinas she thought as she wandered about for hours trying to shake the sight form her mind.

Never in her life had she ever felt so hurt so Backstabbed, not only was it the guy that had swore his entire future to her pursuing her love and affection relentlessly for the past two and a half years, seemingly ever so loyally but it was with her best friend no less. A double betrayal a double stab in the back, she couldn't see as how she could ever recover as the two people she loved and cared about most in this world had betrayed her, with each other to boot.

Had it not been for the sudden brilliant spark of lightning and the deafening sounds of thunder rolling through the ever darkening skies of over Hinata Naru might have been content to curl up into a ball in some alleyway and cry her self dry over the course of two or three days in the rain but as things were, she figured that she had better get inside.

"Now running through the rain, trying her best not to get wet Naru scampered into the nearest public building she could find. The rain was picking up now and at an incredible pace as she watched it slam sideways against the front glass window of the bar she had just stumbled into.

It was a slightly different establishment than she was use to it was something of a western looking place, a pool table in the corner, a large bar with swivel stools all lined up in front of it. It was a dark and practically abandoned place but at 11 am what kind of bar wouldn't be. Reluctantly though knowing she had no other place to go Naur walked up and sat down at the bar, taking a quick glance at the TV behind the bar before the bartender walked up to her.

"You don't look so good girl, is there anything I Can I help you with?" she asked leaning up against her side of the bar while drying off a glass with a towel.

Naru only gave her a so-so half faked smile.

"Sigh man problems I see." The bartender said without breaking a sweat.

"That obvious?" Naru asked rhetorically.

"lets just say that a good looking young girl like you doesn't come to places like this at night much less before noon unless something's eating at her. Naru looked at her funny. "Truth is your eyes give it away." said the bartender. "Now how bout a drink on the house, looks like you need one, or maybe two." she said with a certain spunk and surprisingly Naru for once perked up.

"I guess its not all bad," Naru said to herself as she finished her second rum and coke. It was quite in here other than the television and the sound of the rain still beating down upon the city relentlessly as it had for the last hour, there wasn't much noise, it was a good place to come to relax. It was about that time when something on the television caught her eye.

It was a martial arts tournament, something called Arrogance, where two men would get in a steel cage and fight each other, the rules were basically the same as a street braw, do unto others before they do to you, the fights were a brutal bloody mess but naru wither she would admit it or not was actually rather drawn to this sort of thing and, it was just what she needed to take her mind off of the events of earlier that morning, of course the alcohol didn't hurt much either.

"Yea throw a right hook, I said right hook not jab you dumb ass, your getting killed in there." Naru excitedly exclaimed almost as if she were the corner for one of the fighters she was rooting for, though much to her disappointment he was making stupid mistakes and getting brutalized for it. "Damn guys their all the same they don't know when to listen and they sure as hell don't know what to fight for!" she yelled pounding the bar with her fist as her fighter sustained a direct hit to the side of the head and was thrown to the mat a bloody mess.

It was at about that time that she heard a mans voice sound up from behind her. "Dontcha you have that one right." he said as he sat down beside of her at the bar. The was a rather tall guy who was soaking wet, as he had just come in form out in the storm, as he sat water flowed off of his medium brown ponytail and just under chin length bangs. "So you in here to get out of the rain too?" he asked somewhat tiredly turning his head to look in her direction.

"At the very instant that the two strangers eyes met, they both froze, the young man's jaw hanging open and Naru in mid-sip of her third drink, just held it there below her lips, shocked and stunned too much to speak. There was a long awkward silence as they gazed at each others faces dumbstruck before, naru nonchalantly returned to her sipping and set the drink down on the counter staring at it.

"I'm so sorry Naru." The voice sounded off as the young man braced awaiting his trip into orbit courtesy of one of Naru's legendary punches.

"Don't worry about it Hiatani." she replied her words void of any fire of Ill intent towards him. "you can relax I'm not going to send you through the roof or anything." she said placing her right hand on his shoulder, cracking a small yet still noticeably evil smile at his discomfort. "Cant have this place leaking in a storm like this can we?" she finished up.

"Guess not." He replied still somewhat apprehensive, followed by a loud throat clearing cough.

"So yours your partner in crime, how come you two aren't attached at the hip chasseing skirts like always?" Naru asked still focusing most of her energy on watching the next fight but was paying Haitani some attention.

"What you mean Shari?" He asked. "Man that bum hasen hardly lifted a finger to go out and meet any ladies, or much less do much of anything but hang out online and play some MMORPG online with his virtual girlfriend for the better part of six months. I keep telling him that his "girlfriend" on the game is probably some 14 year old teenager, who gets off on being some sort of virtual cock-tease, or even worse some sort of pedophile. Sigh but he wont listen to me, sides It was getting boring so I just come to check up on Keitaro, how is your better half by the way?"

"I would rather you not mention that name around me anymore." Naru growled sinking her fingers into the soft part of Haitani's shoulder.

"yea ok, got it that good hugh?" He spoke trying to change the subject as Naru's death grip began to loosen. 'so how are you?' he said to himself running through all of the things he might say to her without incurring her wrath, all of the lines he had used over the years began to process through his head as he nervously wondered how he was going to get out of this one, none of them seemed to work, plus this hardly seemed the time as How Naru wouldn't be in a place like this if everything was aright, so for once in his life he decided to himself that he wouldn't hit on her and just try and be a good friend. that was when.

"Hey Haitani, shut up that line generator, you got running off between those ears of yours and have a drink with me." Naru said mater of factually as the bartender placed a large rum and coke in front of the pony tailed young man. "Ittle warm you up, and it looks like you need it." she said continuing. "Now shut up and lets watch the fights." she said giving him just a quick preview of that legendary smile of hers.

It was right about then when the next fight had started a loud tone come accost the television speakers and was soon followed by a Voice.

We now interrupt this program to bring you this News bulletin.

"Damnit!" Naru growled as the Fighting was replaced by a News caster and she smashed her fist into the bar once more.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZz

At that same time in the Hinata Teahouse Sarah, Mutsumi and several of her customers were sitting down, enjoying the sound of the rain fall upon the roof and the forest all around them with the faint background noise of the television when the bulletin came accost the News.

"We interrupt this news for a special bulletin." The television voice said grabbing everyone's attention.

"The Typhoon Setsuna is scheduled to make land fall near Tokyo city sometime between the hours of 3 and 5 am tomorrow morning, as such the sounding areas are to be advised of the typhoon warning and should take shelter, and wait for this class 3 typhoon patiently as the rain that has just started should let up 5 days or so,

"In other news..." However before the broadcaster could finish the television was cut off. The crowd of half a dozen people of who's eyes were transfixed on the screen looked around to see what had cut it off only to see a tall young man with a mop of light-brown hair hanging from his head and ruby red eyes holding a remote.

"What?" he asked shrugging as the crowed stared at him somewhat angrily. However when Mutsumi spoke his name the glares eased up.

"Kentaro, I thought I give you the day off?" she said rather surprised to see him.

"well you did but as soon as I heard the news about the typhoon, I rushed up here," he paused for a moment before looking at the five other people in the restaurant his face turning a little more serious and his tone changing to match. "Listen Mutsumi, I got a bad felling about this one, I know its only a class three storm and in Okinawa you get these things all the time, but I just have a feeling about this one."

"A feeling like what?" she asked giggle trailing behind it.

"Its just not a good one that's all I can say right now, but these feelings i get they're usually right, so much in fact that I suggest that everyone here that's got a place to stay should get there, before the storm gets any worse, of course I can understand if you don't want to go anywhere and those who cant or wont are more than welcome to stay here for the night if they want. Right Mutsumi?" he asked nervously.

"Fu fu, of course." she said so very sweetly. Of course there were only 4 customers in the restaurant as of now so if they all decided to stay, it wouldn't be that bad she thought. There was a middle aged American couple that were in their second honeymoon, they didn't speak great Japanese but they fuddled with the language well enough to get by, an old man who sat silently at his table sipping tea and smoking a pipe, like had for what appeared to be the better half of a century, and in the corner sat a rather tall woman with long jet black hair thick cut bangs and a very long sword laying by her side, as she tranquilly sipped some of the house tea.

"Well thank you Miss Mutsumi." Said the American couple, but we must be on our way wouldn't want to get lost out in this storm." They bowed in the best traditional sense they could muster then gave Mutsumi a wad of Bills for payment. After counting it Mutsumi Noticed something.

"You've given me too much." She said making them change.

"No that's for you sweetheart." the Woman replied as they took off running out into the rain like children during some kind of game.

"Too bad they didn't know that tipping isn't customary in Japan." Said Kentaro as they left.

"I suppose Ill be taking my leave form here as well." stated the taller woman she stood to her feet, threw on a triangle straw hat and picked up her sword before tossing several coins to Mutsaumi. "Take care of yourself Miss," she said pulling the hat down over her eyes. "I to have a feeling were all in for one wild night." And with that comment she disappeared into the thick rain around the Hinata.

"How bout you old geezer?" Sarah asked jumping down from one of the tables you got some place to go or are you just going to set there and smoke your pipe all night?" she asked.

"Well I certainly have no intention of going out into that wild rain if that's what your suggesting, these old bones may not be able to take a cold rain like the one coming tonight, now if you wouldn't mind Miss Otohime, i would like some more tea please." He said with an old smile as he ran his hands through the long whispy go-t on his face.

"Certainly." she replied with a smile as she went into the back room to get more tea.

"By the way young man do you play shoji?" he asked.

"Why as a matter of fact yes i do." Replied Kentaro. "Though I don't know if you'll enjoy getting beat old man." He replied with a certain confidence.

"In your dreams sonny, the old man retorted with a smile as Kentaro disappeared only to remerge with a shoji set moments later along with Mutsumi and tama-chan carrying a fresh pot of tea.

"Damn why do i have to get stuck with old people, its gonna be a long night." Sarah groaned to Tama-chan who was resting on her shoulder as the rest of the people in the teashop settled in for a long night.

**Well Its been over a year in the works since I last updated this fic, A speical thanks to everyone that has been following this fic since the beginning or has just picked it up. I just want to see that people are reading my work even after over a year in Fan fiction Exile. Please Review as i dont know if I should continue or not without some sort of feedback. **

** Latar**

**Icescythe**


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